Saturday, September 27

It was my first weekend since enrolling at the girls’ campus, and for once Dad wasn’t working overtime. That meant I couldn’t just slip out in my avatar form. I thought about asking Zhao Zhao for help, but Xiao Lei had to work at the manga café today, so he couldn’t come with me to school either.

“Kai-chan, open up! I’m here!”

That’s right—I’d called Rinka over to help push my wheelchair. She was more than happy to do it.

Dad, who was mopping the floor, froze in place when he heard a girl’s voice outside the door. Was it just my imagination, or were his symptoms getting worse and worse?

I could have asked Haitang, but she’d never make it past the boys’ school gate. In the end, the only one who could come and go freely between the two schools’ main entrances was Rinka—well, not because she was the principal’s granddaughter, but simply because the guards on both sides knew her.

“I’m heading out for a while, Dad. Don’t wait for me for lunch, okay?”

Still stuck in his wooden-doll mode, Dad gave a stiff nod. I sighed and followed Rinka out the door—naturally, still in the wheelchair.

She gripped the handles tight, leaned forward, and I could feel the “revving-up-to-sprint” energy radiating from her.

“Hey, hey—what are you trying to pull?”

“Push your chair, duh! I’ve always wanted to try this!” She raised her voice and bellowed, “Toot! Toot! Welcome aboard the Biyang Express! Your driver today is Tan Rinka—or wait, no, scratch that! It’s Huangfu Rinka now!”

“Huh? You changed your name?”

“It’s already been changed. Haven’t you looked at the class roster? This was grandma’s will — every female descendant of the Huangfu family must carry the Huangfu name. Sounds unreasonable, doesn’t it?¹”

“So that’s it.”

That explained why little Jing’s surname was Huangfu, not Feng. I’d thought she only changed it after the divorce, but from the sound of it, she was born Huangfu Jing.

“All right, departure! Start your engine!”

She kicked off with her legs, and the wheelchair bolted forward without warning.

“Waaaaaahhhhhh!!”
“Ahahahaha!!”

She really was going to race! Somebody save me!

Sis Xi had come ahead to wait for us in the secret hideout. The moment she saw me hobbling in with my crutches, she clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Whoa! Kai, what happened to you? You’ve gone pale!”

Sure enough, the sheer terror had drained every ounce of color from me. I looked like a black-and-white photo.

Rinka had taken to steering my wheelchair through drainage-ditch hairpins, inertia drifts, and tornado sprints—traumatizing both my heart and my spirit.

And since wheelchairs don’t exactly have shock absorbers, my backside was completely numb, and my fracture was itching like crazy. Was she deliberately trying to delay my recovery by turning my wheelchair into an AE86?!

“Ah, I can see Grandpa and Grandma waving at me from across the river…”

“Pull it together! That’s the Naihe River² —don’t go!” Sis Xi shook my shoulders until my soul came back, and I collapsed into her soft chest for comfort.

“Sis Xi~ I never want to ride in Rinka’s wheelchair again~”

“Wait, Xiao Kai! You’re still a boy—don’t cling to me like that… mmph, this counts as harassment!”

She said that, but she didn’t push me away. Ahh, Sis Xi’s so nice~ Oppais are so nice~ Sis Xi’s oppais are so nice!

Then—thwack! A heavy impact rang in my ears, and the next thing I knew I was spinning out of the wheelchair, skidding face-first across the carpet until I hit the wall.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, idiot?!”

Even through the daze, I recognized that palm. No doubt about it, it’s definitely Lei Meow Meow.

“I’m sorry! I let my lust get the better of me!” I apologized in a panic, not even sure why she’d suddenly shown up in the hideout.
Rinka just snorted. “Serves you right.”

Still in her stage costume, Meow Meow stormed over, her long right leg stomping hard into my lower back. “Since the band wasn’t here yet, I came to check things out—and what do I find? You groping Xiao Xi! Haven’t been beaten for a few days and you’re already getting cocky, huh? Looks like you really want me to turn you into a punching bag?!”

And there it was again—the riverbank lined with red spider lilies filling my vision.

“Eh? Grandpa? Grandma? You came back for me?”

“I told you, don’t go!” Sis Xi retorted.

Even though Meow Meow gave me a proper thrashing, I used the bookmark to split off into my avatar and dump all the pain onto my original body.

After that, I followed her and the others to the concert venue—Biyang Girls’ High gymnasium.

The gym was massive, big enough to host the entire student body for morning assemblies. It had been built with cultural performances in mind, so it came fully equipped with stage facilities, it was basically a multi-purpose hall normally used as a gym.

Even though it was the weekend, the place was buzzing with people for the concert rehearsals. Haitang and the whole student council were there, and even Tangerine had tagged along. Her long, bright-orange hair stood out instantly in the crowd—especially since she was surrounded by cats. The moment she walked in, you couldn’t miss her.

“Onii-chan!”
With her animal-like instincts, Tangerine spotted me right away.

She leapt—no, pounced—like a tiger, carrying the overwhelming momentum of a predator. With that aura pressing down on me, there was no way I could dodge. She tackled me flat on my back, then bent down and planted a smooch on my cheek.

“D-don’t eat me!”

“I’m not gonna eat you!”

The gym floor was pretty hard. Getting knocked down like that left my butt sore.

“Oh, Commander, you’re here? Planning to get on stage today?”
Haitang strolled over, offering me a hand up.

“Not a chance!” I quickly denied it, then asked, “But why’s the whole student council here for Meow Meow’s concert rehearsal?”

“Well, the concert only got approved because the student council negotiated with the school board in the first place.”

She pointed toward the stage, where a group of girls were fiddling with instruments.

“And we’re also in charge of coordinating with the Light Music Club and the Brass Band.”

Wait, this school has both a Light Music Club and a Brass Band? Do they happen to have a Yui Hirasawa or a Kumiko Oumae hanging around?

“Are they here to play as the band for Meow Meow?”

“Nope, it’s a guest performance~” Sis Xi shook her head, looking a little embarrassed. “After all, my sister hasn’t been in the industry long—she only has five singles so far. That’s too few for a full concert set. And her singing style is really demanding on her stamina, so she needs breaks between songs. The clubs are just filling in the time.”

Well, it couldn’t be helped. Meow Meow wasn’t a songwriter herself, and commissioning new songs took time. And with her unique multi-voice technique—where one person was the entire chorus—it wasn’t easy to compose music that matched her style.

Haitang nodded. “Even though the stage isn’t huge, the concert’s being livestreamed. So it’s not just publicity for Meow Meow, it’s also a chance for the school and the guest clubs to show off. Everyone’s fired up!”

Meow Meow added, “All of our bands in Yuanyue Entertainment have male members, so they can’t enter Biyang Girls’ High. That’s why Sis Xi reached out to a professional all-girl band instead. They should be on their way here now.”

Well technically, if they’d asked me, I could have sneaked the boys’ bands inside. But clearly, Sis Xi didn’t want to invite unnecessary trouble.

“Still… with a band you’ve never worked with, can you really pull it together in just two days of rehearsal?”

“That’s where passion and guts come in! We’ll make it work!”

…Talk about a delinquent’s answer.