Chapter 73
Chapter 73: The Heart Demon Takes Form
Xiao Man sprawled over her desk, humming as she counted the little X marks she’d drawn.
On the sheet of paper were five bold words: “Chastity Defense War.”
Beneath them, a neat row of boxes.
Each day that passed, she crossed one out.
One day closer. One day nearer victory.
She was humming smugly when a faint rustle sounded from under the bed.
Soft—but in the stillness of night, unmistakable.
“Hm?”
Xiao Man bent down and peered into the darkness.
Two clear yellow eyes stared back at her, bright as coins, glinting with lazy appraisal.
A cat.
A pitch-black cat without a single stray hair, its coat glossy and smooth. It licked its front paw with unhurried elegance, radiating a cold, unmistakable message:
Don’t touch me.
“Well, hello,” Xiao Man said, amused despite herself. “How did you end up in my room?”
She reached out, testing, playful. “Mimi?”
The cat didn’t even bother looking at her. It simply switched paws and kept licking, turning disregard into an art form.
Xiao Man clicked her tongue and started to straighten—
when a lazy, slightly husky boy’s voice drifted from beneath the bed, casual as if this were perfectly normal.
“Didn’t you call me Tuan Tuan? Since when did I become ‘Mimi’?”
“Holy shit!”
Xiao Man’s soul nearly left her body. Her legs went soft, and she landed hard on the floor.
She stared, finger shaking as she pointed at the bed. “A-a cat talked?!”
The black cat slipped out from under the bed and sprang onto the desk with effortless grace.
Its long tail flicked in irritation—then, with deliberate precision, it stepped right on her freshly drawn X marks.
Gold eyes gleamed with open mockery.
“I am Tuan Tuan,” it said.
“And those few nights in your dreams…” It dragged the words with a suggestive laziness. “That lust-tangled mess between you and the Buddhist scion let me save up a bit of true qi.”
“Add Zheng Xiu Yun’s vicious thoughts on top of that, and this seat got a small breakthrough early.”
It tilted its head, as if offering her credit. “So I borrowed this cat body. That way you can stop laughing at me for not even having a form.”
Xiao Man’s brain buzzed as if a hundred ducks were quacking inside her skull.
It took several seconds before she managed to latch onto the point: Tuan Tuan had a body now.
A heart demon wearing a cat shell.
She scrambled up, wide-eyed, stabbing a finger at it. “But Lin Qing Xuan said he’s you, and you’re him!”
“Tch.” Cat-devil Tuan Tuan scoffed, utterly unimpressed. “Close enough. I’m his heart demon. He used to keep me pinned down with the Buddha Bone Relic, but now…”
It licked its paw with maddening elegance. “Now Lin Qing Xuan, that fake-prudish Buddhist scion, just uses me as an excuse to take advantage of you.”
“And I don’t know which stupid woman got used clean and still blamed it on the heart demon.”
“To hell with your Young Master!”
Xiao Man’s temper detonated.
She grabbed the heavy inkstone and hurled it at the smug black cat without thinking. “I’m steadfast and unyielding—like you two can just take advantage whenever you want!”
Tuan Tuan darted aside with inhuman speed. The inkstone slammed into the window frame with a loud bang.
The cat sprang onto the windowsill, turned back, and grinned, flashing sharp little teeth.
The grin was pure arrogance.
“Too late,” it purred. “Everything that could be taken in your dreams was taken a long time ago.”
Then it kicked off, a black blur leaping into the night and disappearing.
“Ahhh!”
Xiao Man stomped in place, furious enough to chase it down and pluck it bald.
She took several deep breaths before her chest loosened—then a colder thought slid in.
A heart demon could run around freely now.
Was that a good thing for Lin Qing Xuan?
That was his heart demon. What if it caused trouble outside? What if it turned on him?
Worry drowned her anger.
She threw on an outer robe and ran straight to Lin Qing Xuan’s door, pounding hard.
“Eldest Young Master! Eldest Young Master, are you asleep?”
The door opened almost at once.
Lin Qing Xuan stood there in plain white underclothes, long hair loose, his expression cool and composed.
“What happened?”
Xiao Man clung to the doorframe, not daring to step in. She glanced left and right like a thief, then lowered her voice to a whisper.
“That heart demon—Tuan Tuan—it took form! A black cat! It ran out of my room just now! I’m afraid it’ll hurt you!”
Lin Qing Xuan didn’t blink. He only shifted aside and pointed down by his feet.
“Do you mean this one?”
Xiao Man followed his gesture—
and nearly lost her mind again.
The same black cat that had been swaggering in her room was sitting obediently by Lin Qing Xuan’s leg, rubbing its head against his trousers like a docile pet.
“It… it’s here?” she stammered. “How is it with you?!”
Lin Qing Xuan’s tone stayed mild. “It came to brag that it had taken form. Then it refused to leave.”
He paused, then added, as if this were the most ordinary thing in the world, “It said it wants to watch you and me.”
As if on cue, the cat lifted its head, licked its paw, and spoke in that lazy, punchable voice.
“That’s right. I’m watching you, you fake-prudish Buddhist scion, and watching her, you little maid with spring in your heart—waiting to see when you two finally poke through that paper window and get down to business.”
Xiao Man pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel her blood pressure climbing again.
“I thought it would hide somewhere and stab you in the dark,” she muttered. “I didn’t expect…”
Didn’t expect it to be this shameless. This bold. This loud.
Cat-devil Tuan Tuan let out a sound that was technically a meow, but somehow still dripping with scorn.
“You underestimate this seat,” it said smugly. “This seat is the most upright. I use open moves and dirty moves alike.”
Then its amber eyes swung back to Xiao Man.
“And you! Throw away that countdown board. You can’t leave anyway, so what’s the point? You make this seat run over every few days to change your numbers—annoying as hell!”
Xiao Man planted her hands on her hips and started arguing with a cat as if it were a person.
“Who asked you to change anything? Don’t you touch my board again, or don’t blame me for being rude! Before, you had no body and I couldn’t hit you. Now you’ve got a cat body—watch whether I beat you or not!”
Lin Qing Xuan watched the girl and the cat bicker. For once, something like amusement flickered in his cool eyes.
Keeping this restless heart demon at his side—under his gaze—might be safer than letting it roam the night unchecked.