Chapter 14: The Human Ladder and the Escaped Kitten

Today the weather outside was pleasant, with abundant sunshine. Xiao Xi rarely had the chance to relax in such an environment.

The Senior Sister led Xiao Xi and Shi Meng to their usual cat-watching spot on the third-floor corridor. Looking down, they saw the small cat sprawled on the rooftop, basking idly in the sun.

‘Oh, this…’

‘This is far too leisurely! Had it already adapted to life on the rooftop?’

Xiao Xi found the situation rather absurd. If things continued this way, it seemed there would be no need to rescue the cat. They could simply deliver food daily, wait for it to grow, and it would naturally descend on its own later, wouldn’t it?

‘Hmm…’

‘Wait a minute…’

Suddenly, Xiao Xi considered a dreadful consequence. If they continued to feed this cat, who would even reimburse them for the cat food? More importantly, wouldn’t the kitten eventually assume that simply lying on the rooftop guaranteed food and drink?

‘What if it stayed on the rooftop for its entire life, never coming down again? Was this what they called a comfort zone? Ugh, the horror!’

‘Then, the little cat might even begin to endure wind and rain, believing it to be a reward. A chilling thought!’

Xiao Xi scarcely dared to ponder further. He quickly stifled these strange associations with the kitten’s plight, lest the implications turn back on him. Meanwhile, the Senior Sister and his younger sister paid no mind to his musings, continuing to lower food and water to the cat in a basket, just as they always did.

Once everything was settled, the Senior Sister glanced around. Although most students were within the school at this hour, it was class time, so few people were moving about. Any figures they saw would be teachers, and teachers certainly wouldn’t bother them.

“Let’s go down. There’s no point staying here. The kitten is now reluctant to even approach the basket.”

The Senior Sister sighed with a hint of worry. The kitten’s initial reaction to the basket had shifted from immediately rushing to eat to retreating and observing from a distance.

This change was due to Shi Meng’s previous misstep; she had failed to lift the kitten with the basket, inadvertently instilling a fear of the object in the small creature. Feeling guilty, Shi Meng sheepishly lowered her head.

Xiao Xi snapped out of his thoughts, gazing at the kitten as he began to devise a plan.

The trio descended the stairs, arriving beneath the rooftop where the cat resided. From this vantage point, the situation on the roof was no longer visible.

“Senior Sister, do you have any good ideas?” Xiao Xi asked, turning to Gao Meiyou. His younger sister had always spoken of the Senior Sister’s reliability, and it seemed to be true. She could even devise a way for him to escape his older sister’s clutches. Though she hadn’t revealed it yet, Xiao Xi felt that simply being able to conceive such a plan was impressive.

The Senior Sister playfully stuck out her tongue, a blush creeping up her neck. “Oh, I thought rescuing a kitten would be quite simple, so I didn’t really think through the details. I’ve been preoccupied with your situation, Junior Brother…”

“Ah…”

Xiao Xi froze. ‘She’s been thinking about my situation all this time? Senior Sister… she really cares about me.’

Xiao Xi felt a touch of embarrassment. It was his own matter, yet he was burdening the Senior Sister so much. In that case, he resolved, he would be the one to come up with a way to save the kitten!

Xiao Xi furrowed his brow. The building before them was merely a single-story structure. While its height was somewhat unusual, it wouldn’t be particularly difficult to climb if they had a ladder.

‘That’s right, a ladder!’

“Do you have a ladder, Senior Sister? If we could get one, couldn’t we just climb up and carry the kitten down?”

Xiao Xi turned and asked Gao Meiyou. Meiyou and Shi Meng exchanged glances. This… they had actually considered it from the very beginning.

“It’s hard to find, Junior Brother,” the Senior Sister said, a hint of difficulty in her voice. “Even if we had a ladder, it’s not easy to bring something like that into school. Hmm…” She admitted that if she *really* insisted on bringing one, the teachers wouldn’t be able to stop her. However, she simply didn’t own a ladder. Where would an ordinary person use a ladder in their daily life? Online, perhaps…

“Hmm…” Xiao Xi didn’t want to make the Senior Sister feel awkward, yet human thought processes often worked this way. Just as the Senior Sister and Shi Meng had initially conceived of using a basket to lift the kitten, once an idea took root, it became difficult to break free from that ingrained way of thinking.

Xiao Xi was no different. He persistently imagined climbing onto the rooftop and bringing the kitten down. However, the current predicament was that if a ladder was hard to find, then how would they get up there?

“Oh, that’s it!” A thought suddenly flashed in Xiao Xi’s mind. He turned to the Senior Sister and Shi Meng, proposing, “We can form a human ladder!”

Shi Meng and the Senior Sister exchanged glances. A human ladder… that actually seemed like a viable solution. Although none of the three were particularly tall, stacked together, they should be able to reach the rooftop. The only issue was…

‘How would they arrange themselves?’

Although Xiao Xi was a boy, he appeared rather delicate. If they followed the established rule of boys at the bottom and girls on top for a human ladder, Gao Meiyou worried that her Junior Brother wouldn’t be able to bear the weight.

Seeing their doubtful expressions, Xiao Xi grew indignant. He was a boy, after all; surely he could support the relatively light Senior Sister and Shi Meng. Besides, it would only be for a brief moment until one of them climbed up, wouldn’t it?

“I can do it! I’ll definitely hold steady!”

“I…” Shi Meng extended her hand. “Actually, I can do it too, Big Brother. You’re… a bit lighter than me.”

“I’m still a boy!” Xiao Xi retorted, feeling indignant. As a male, even if his height was similar to Shi Meng’s and he weighed slightly less, there was still a fundamental difference! His leg muscles, for instance… they surely had to be a bit stronger than Shi Meng’s, right?

“Alright, how about this?” the Senior Sister interjected. “Xiao Xi, you go on the bottom, I’ll be in the middle, and Shi Meng, you climb up. With this arrangement, the two of us at the bottom will provide the most height, and it’ll be easier for you to ascend, Shi Meng, won’t it?”

The Senior Sister brought an end to their argument. Shi Meng ultimately nodded, and Xiao Xi, squatting by the wall, bravely declared, “Come on!”

The Senior Sister removed her shoes. Her feet, encased in white stockings, pressed onto Xiao Xi’s shoulders. Shi Meng followed immediately after. And then, Xiao Xi already felt a sharp pain in his shoulders.

‘No… this is heavier than I imagined!’

Xiao Xi remained silently crouched. ‘No, I can’t hold on. I need to stand up quickly.’

Xiao Xi gritted his teeth, his body involuntarily swaying. The two girls standing on him were startled by the precarious situation. ‘This, this, this… it feels like we’re about to fall!’

Suddenly, Xiao Xi felt something clamp onto his face.

“Senior Sister, don’t be so tense! My face hurts!”

“Hold steady, Junior Brother!”

In her fright, the Senior Sister’s legs continued to clamp Xiao Xi’s face. The sensation of white stockings lingered on his cheeks. While it was quite… alluring, it was also genuinely painful!

Moreover, a strange scent was wafting through the air!

Finally, the formation stabilized. Shi Meng quickly scrambled onto the rooftop and snatched the cat. But then, with a resounding thud, Shi Meng looked back to see… the Senior Sister and her brother had already collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion.

‘Hey, hey, hey…’

‘This isn’t right, is it?’

Shi Meng was bewildered. ‘How are we supposed to get down now?’

“Senior Sister, I’m hallucinating. I’m seeing little people…”

“Ahhh—don’t say it, don’t say it!”

A foam-mouthed Xiao Xi was being furiously pounded on the ground by a blushing Gao Meiyou, the Senior Sister. Nearby, Shi Meng quietly… carefully jumped down from the rooftop.

*Thud!*

Unable to land steadily, she tumbled down again, landing squarely between the two grappling figures on the ground, thus physically breaking up their fight.

The kitten had escaped.