Chapter 16: I’m Really Not Human~

Chapter 16: I’m Really Not Human~

“Mm~”

Chen Shiyu twisted on her bed like a water snake, stretching her arms straight, her whole body taut. Her slim waist arched off the mattress into a bridge as she let out a long, lazy stretch.

Even though she’d only fallen asleep very late after tossing and turning with insomnia, she still woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed.

She turned and picked up her phone from the nightstand, checking the overnight recording.

“No problem…?”

On the screen, the girl in the video was clearly a restless sleeper—kicking off the blanket, grinding her teeth, kicking at stuffed animals, and rolling around nonstop. But at no point did she transform into a fox as she had half-expected.

Then what on earth was that red fur on her bed?

Tilting her head in confusion, she failed to come up with an answer. 

Forget it. 

She rubbed her neck, rolled out of bed, and muttered to herself.

“Ughhh, don’t wanna go to school.”

“Ughhh, maybe I should just skip class, skip the whole day…”

“Ughhh—”

The moment she unlocked her bedroom door, the complaints froze on her lips.

There, leaning casually against the corridor railing with a phone in hand, stood Shen Yan.

—What the hell?! You treating this place like your own home or what?!

He looked up at her, his gaze sweeping past the girl’s pale, smooth thighs exposed to the air… then lingering briefly on the faint outline of her chest under her thin pajamas—where she obviously hadn’t bothered with underwear.

But just as quickly, his eyes moved away without the slightest trace of longing.

They were too familiar with each other. Even if the sight was attractive enough to hold his attention for a moment, he just couldn’t muster any real interest.

“Morning~”

“…”

Seeing no response, Shen Yan added another word with a straight face:

“Wife.”

Joy.

Happiness.

Those feelings shot straight up in Shiyu’s chest—only for her eyes to widen in panic the very next second. Her pale, slender neck flushed crimson before the heat spread upward, covering her cheeks, her forehead, even the tips of her ears. Her whole face burned as though she had a raging fever, her mind going completely blank.

Something hot and unbearable swelled inside her chest—an emotion known as shame. Like pressure inside a boiling kettle, it built and built until it exploded.

“AAAAAAHHH!!! I’M NOT! I NEVER AGREED TO THAT!”

Her mental defenses crumbled. Screaming, she slammed the door shut and dove headfirst under the blankets, wrapping herself into a tight cocoon like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

The effect was… surprisingly effective.

Shen Yan nearly burst out laughing. 

Was it really necessary for the fox spirit to freak out over a single word like that?

Smug as a conquering hero, he nudged the door open again, stayed just outside, and—looking at the girl with her rear sticking up from under the blankets—called out mischievously:

“Wife!”

“Shut up! I’m not! Get out! OUT!”

Shiyu thrashed under the covers, her shrill voice sharp enough to pierce an eardrum.

It wasn’t so much the word itself that had broken her—it was that fleeting, instinctive happiness she’d felt in response…

She had once been glad to inherit the original girl’s memories. But now, it felt like they were a curse—like the girl herself was still sharing this body with her, whispering emotions she couldn’t resist.

“OUT! GET OUT!”

She abandoned her usual composure and hurled a plush doll straight at the door.

Shen Yan quickly dodged back, laughing. “Fine, fine! Hurry up and brush your teeth and wash your face. I’ll wait for you downstairs!”

“GET OUT!”

Her shriek echoed through the room. She grabbed another stuffed toy and raised it high, ready to throw again—

—but her hand froze in midair.

After a pause, she lowered the doll and set it back gently.

She wasn’t the type to throw things when she was mad. Normally, when upset, she’d just shut down and ignore people in silence. That was more her style.

Her emotions shouldn’t even be this unstable. In her past life, when she played Dota, she never once flamed her teammates. Even the Great Buddha of Leshan should’ve yielded its seat to her zen-like patience.

“Damn it!”

Chen Shiyu slammed her fist into the plush toy.

Still fuming, she stood up with a huff, shoving her homework haphazardly into her schoolbag. But when she turned her head, she froze in shock.

In the full-length mirror on her wardrobe, her expression was still sour with anger—but perched atop her head were two flared, red-tinged fox ears, pressed flat against her skull like airplane wings. Behind her slim white legs, poking out from under her shirt hem, a fluffy tail swished about nervously, bristling in agitation as though preparing to strike.

“…”

Shiyu slowly lifted her hands, touching her earlobes first… then higher. She pinched the furry ears at the top of her head.

It tickled. Even more sensitive than her human ones.

Four ears?

“…I’m really not human, am I?”

No! Wait, that wasn’t the point! When the hell had she turned into a fox girl?! Was it because she’d gotten too emotional just now? Did Shen Yan see it?!

—He probably didn’t, right? Otherwise he would’ve screamed his head off already.

“So I really am a fox spirit!”

The realization struck her like lightning. Her big tail drooped in defeat, the snowy-white tip dragging limply on the floor.

She turned around and stared at the tail hanging behind her, willing it to swish once, twice. It obeyed. She let out a long, lifeless sigh, the kind that practically reeked of despair.

Just perfect. Not only did she carry two people’s worth of memories, her sense of self was a complete mess—consciousness dominated by a man’s mind, body shaped into a fox-human hybrid, and now she was officially a beast-eared girl.

“…So, how the hell do I turn back?”

She couldn’t exactly walk into school with a pair of twitching ears and a giant tail on display.

“Shishi? Hurry up already!”

Shen Yan’s voice called from downstairs.

Her fox ears twitched. …Oh great, her hearing was sharper now too. She could hear him loud and clear.

Shiyu panicked, spinning in circles in place. She darted to the wardrobe, yanking out a wide-brimmed sunhat and slapping it over her head, then pulling on the baggiest pants she could find.

Didn’t work. The tail stuck out, puffing the fabric like a balloon. Way too obvious.

A skirt, then?

For the first time, she glanced at the rows of skirts hanging in her closet.

The hat slipped off her head. Her fox ears, standing tall, had popped it right off.

She scrambled, grabbing the hat and shoving it down over her ears, while at the same time fumbling with a long skirt. She kicked off her pajamas, threw on her underwear, tugged her school uniform shirt into place—all while hopping around like a chicken in a panic.

Then… she suddenly froze.

The girl in the mirror no longer had fox ears.

“…What kind of logic is this?”

Shiyu stared at her reflection, baffled.

Was it that when she got too emotional she transformed, and when she calmed down she turned back?

—Downstairs.

On the dining table sat a bowl of sweet potato porridge, a small clay pot of stew, and some bread and milk—prepared early in the morning by Chen Shiyu’s mother before work.

Shen Yan was happily munching on her breakfast bread, smug at having pretended nothing unusual happened. That little act was what allowed him to notice the fox girl’s new secret.

“So the ears and tail pop out when she’s worked up or angry, huh…”

“The way she gets mad is exactly the same as Shishi…”

He shook his head. After spending so much time with this fox, sometimes he almost forgot and truly believed his childhood friend had returned.

But his childhood friend could never stir up his desires like this. They were too familiar.

This fox spirit though… true to her kind, every move she made lined up perfectly with his tastes and fetishes. Always trying to seduce him.