“Make friends with beautiful girls?” Yeah right!

Obviously, that wasn’t the real reason she kidnapped us. She’s only being vague because I already know she’s connected to Lin Ziye, right?

If I flip that around, it means she doesn’t want Lin Ziye to find out what she’s doing. I don’t know what exactly she’s up to, but that’s leverage.

Assuming I can make it out of this room in one piece.

Sharo flicked her biker gang jacket dramatically as she slumped back into her single-seater sofa with a sigh, like I was being unreasonable. “Tch. You’re a tough one, huh? Joining us wouldn’t be bad for you, y’know? If you won’t cooperate, I’ll have no choice but to erase your memories.”

She casually plucked another cookie from the tin and handed it to Jing.

“Thank you, big sis!” Don’t thank the kidnapper! Are you seriously letting a cookie buy you off?!

“Hold on—‘erase my memories’? That sounds... extremely sketchy?”

You’re telling me a gang has memory-wiping tech? As if! No way. She’s totally bluffing.

“Nope, it’s already gone through clinical trials! A few bugs, but it works~ Girls, show Miss Lingmeng our memory-erasing equipment.”

With a snap of her fingers, two gyarus from the corner brought over a violin case and set it down on the coffee table.

And obviously by my experience, there’s definitely no violin in that box.

Gulp.

“Try not to freak out—we’ve got three levels of memory-erasure devices.”

She said that while cracking the case open right in front of me.

...

“Uhh... this is your memory-erasure equipment? You’re not joking?”

Inside the box were: a dull-edged brass knuckle, a metal bat, and a spiked club straight out of a medieval torture chamber.

“Repeatedly applying these medical devices that are not weapons to the skull can induce memory loss,” she said cheerfully.

“‘Medical devices’ my a̲s̲s̲! These are weapons! That last one isn’t for erasing memories—it’s for deleting the whole brain! Who survives a hit from that?!”

Only cartoon characters from slapstick manga survive getting bonked by a spiked club.

“These are memory erasure devices,” she insisted, slipping the knuckles onto her hand with a smile.

“Lingmeng-oneesan... are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?” she asked—suddenly sweet, suddenly respectful.

Okay. That switch in tone just made my skin crawl.

“That’s coercion by threat of violence!”

“What violence? I genuinely want to be friends with you~”

She swung a few test punches through the air—just her fist made a sharp whoosh as it cut through.

Yeah, okay. There’s no reasoning with gangsters. Time to wave the white flag.

“Fine, I get it! I’ll join!”

“Yay! I knew you’d be smart about it. So, what about the little sister? Want to join too?”

Little Jing nodded faster than a bobblehead. No one wants to test those memory erasure devices, obviously.

“In that case, could you two kindly sign this contract?”

She finally untied both of us, only to whip out a highly suspicious document. Everything was covered—except the signature line. This screams sketchy. Signing this thing is practically asking for trouble...

“This isn’t, like, a slave contract or something, is it? Can’t we even know the details?”

“Hahaha, of course not! What era do you think this is, Lingmeng-oneesan?” Her overly theatrical laugh only made me more nervous. “It’s just a normal employment contract~”

Yeah, that sounds even worse!

“But she’s only thirteen, you know? Hiring child labor is illegal.”

“Oh, thirteen? I just told the girls to grab anyone cute. That’s on me. The little one doesn’t need to sign anything.”

She ruffled Jing’s hair affectionately, then turned to me with a smile that definitely wasn’t innocent.

“So that means it’s just you, Lingmeng-oneesan~ Sign here, please!”

Pen in hand, I hesitated...

“Don’t even think about faking it. We already found your ID in your purse. So if the name’s wrong, we’ll know~”

Wait—my bag? When did they take it?

Oh. Right. That girly purse wasn’t with me when I woke up. And inside it... was only Chang Lingmeng’s ID. My original ID wouldn’t be in that one—obviously.

She casually reached beside the couch and pulled the bag out.

“Honestly, for a girl, your bag’s really empty. No makeup, just a little mirror... and this thing— ̶D̶e̶a̶t̶h̶ Note? Man, that’s some vintage merch. Are we sure we’re the same generation? Whoa—there’s actual names written in it too?”

Oh crap. I can’t let her flip through that!

BANG!

Right then, a loud thud echoed through the room—the door had been punched through. A pale, feminine fist had slammed clean through the wood, gripping it from the other side and ripping the entire door off its hinges.

No mistaking it—that monstrous strength had to be...

Meow Meow! …Wait, is she Godzilla!?

The girls of Rakshasa all flinched in unison.

“My, my, Sharo-chan... Looks like it’s my turn to go on the offensive~”

I immediately snatched my purse and notebook from Sharo, grabbed Jing, and made a break for the door.

“It’s Meow Meow-chan!!”

The moment Jing saw Lei Meow Meow at the entrance, she squealed like she was at a surprise idol meet-and-greet. Stars in her eyes.

Meow Meow narrowed her ruby eyes and asked, “Hold up—are you Sis Fei’s dau—little sister?”

“Yup!” Jing chirped.

“What an adorable kid. Sis Fei is also coming soon. Just step aside for a sec, okay?”

Overcome with emotion, I rushed up and hugged her tight.

“Meow Meow, you really saved us big time!”

She just tilted her head and shot me a look of absolute disdain, then pushed me away. “Get off. So what if you’ve got big boobs now? Not like I came here for you.”

Is this classic tsundere behaviour? Can’t you just admit you were worried about me for once?

“Whoa! It’s the real Meow Meow-chan! But she feels kinda different?”

Of course she does—she’s in full gang mode right now. Totally different from her bubbly stage persona.

What shocked me most though... was how genuinely angry she was that we’d been kidnapped. That’s kinda touching, not gonna lie. My affection points for Meow Meow just shot through the roof. She’s so cool.

“You brats... selling pirated DVDs of me without permission?” she hissed, holding up one of the discs. Then snap—she crushed it in her hand and flung the shards to the floor.

“Unless someone explains, no one’s leaving this room tonight!”

She’s mad about that?! Not about rescuing me?! Am I just the side quest?

Okay never mind—affection points dropping fast. Can you not ruin your little fan’s fantasy? Little Jing’s gonna be so heartbroken!

Sharo, finally recovering from the shock, blurted out a classic villain line: “No way—how?! How did you even find this place?!”

“Too bad for you,” Lei Meow Meow replied coolly. “You hid your base well, but in Tianping Commercial District, there’s nowhere Lu Le can’t sniff out.”

As she finished, Meow Meow-jie stepped aside to reveal Lu Le, Tian Xi, Rinka, and Fei—all storming in behind her.

Fei rushed straight for Jing and wrapped her in a crushing hug. She was visibly shaken.

Rinka ran over to check on me. “Kai-chan, you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m fine. Though nearly got whacked in the head repeatedly by a memory-erasure device.”

“...Huh?” She obviously couldn’t get that.

Sis Xi, meanwhile, circled around me, eyeing my transformed body like she was doing a fashion inspection.

“So Kai, what’s your bust size?”

“Uh... I honestly don’t know.”

“Looks bigger than mine.”

“Really? Rinka said it’s an E-cup.”

At that, Rinka flared up like a lit firecracker. “Can you two NOT talk about this right in front of me?! That’s just rude! I’m so mad! And I won’t calm down!”

Fei still hadn’t let go of Jing. Her grip was so tight the poor girl was starting to go limp.

“Sis Fei! Let her go—her face is turning purple!”

We managed to pry Jing free from Fei’s death hug. Poor thing—earlier the gang leader was bribing her with cookies, now she’s about to get smothered by her own dad’s boobs. Life is hard.

Meanwhile, Meow Meow had already tackled Sharo onto the sofa. Sharo could fight back—she’s pretty strong, borderline superhuman—but against Meow Meow, she’s still down a level.

Her skirt was ridiculously short to begin with, and now that she was pinned down, her childish animal-print panties were completely exposed. Wait—is that an anteater?! But why an anteater?

The mini-boss of Rakshasa was now bawling.

“I’m sorry for profiting off your debut footage without permission! I needed some budget for the group… but I’m a huge fan too, I swear!”