Chapter 90: The Unseen Companion

Another morning’s extended break began.

These past few days, Yu Yinlian had been rising exceptionally early; a stark contrast to her initial days in this unobservable world, when she would often sleep past ten. Clutching her phone, she set out to find Zhong Tian and Su Linxi.

During the extended break, many students from the second-year high school building gathered in the corridors, chatting and playfully roughhousing. Yu Yinlian carefully navigated around them, reaching the window of Class 2-3’s corridor before stepping into the real world.

A gentle tap on the window immediately drew Zhong Tian’s attention.

‘Good morning, Yu Yinlian,’ Zhong Tian greeted her.

Stepping out of the classroom, Zhong Tian stood before her to converse.

‘Yes, good morning!’ Yu Yinlian replied, ‘I’ve finished revising the first three chapters of my novel. I was hoping Su Linxi… could take a look. Would that be alright?’

‘I’ll take you to ask her,’ Zhong Tian said softly, ‘Just come inside the classroom.’

‘Alright.’

Now, Yu Yinlian felt completely unconcerned about whether her casual entry into another class might spark gossip. After all, no one would ever recognize her anyway, lending her a certain audacious confidence.

‘Linxi, this is my friend, Yu Yinlian.’

Knowing that Su Linxi no longer remembered Yu Yinlian, Zhong Tian introduced her just as he had the day before. He then handed Su Linxi Yu Yinlian’s phone. ‘These are the first three chapters of a novel she’s written. Would you mind taking a look and offering some feedback?’

‘Hmm,’ Su Linxi murmured.

Su Linxi scrutinized Yu Yinlian for a moment, then assented.

Just as she had yesterday, Su Linxi spent approximately five minutes perusing the first three chapters of Yu Yinlian’s revised novel.

‘…It’s quite good. I look forward to the rest. Keep up the good work,’ Su Linxi remarked.

After delivering her assessment, Su Linxi returned the phone to Yu Yinlian, accompanying it with a look of approval.

‘Oh, thank you!’

Yu Yinlian appeared quite pleased. ‘Zhong Tian,’ she said, ‘I’ll send you the file first, and then I’ll contact you tomorrow to get ready to start serialization.’

‘So soon? Aren’t you going to save up more chapters?’

‘No, I won’t,’ Yu Yinlian declared, waving her hand dismissively as she sent her novel file to Zhong Tian via WeChat. ‘I have plenty of free time, so I’m not worried about missing updates. I don’t see any need to save chapters. Besides, there’s a prize-winning writing contest that just started on the platform where I plan to serialize, and I want to enter it!’

‘Alright, I wish you smooth serialization for your novel,’ Zhong Tian said, offering Yu Yinlian a faint smile. ‘Hopefully, you’ll even win an an award.’

‘Yes! If I win, I’ll split the prize money with you!’

‘We’ll see about that when the time comes,’ he responded.

‘Okay! Goodbye, Zhong Tian!’

Waving farewell, Yu Yinlian returned to the unobservable world.

Any lingering doubts Su Linxi harbored about Yu Yinlian vanished the instant Yu Yinlian disappeared.

Instead of returning to her dorm after leaving the teaching building, Yu Yinlian decided to explore outside the school.

Yu Yinlian was on the hunt for a Bluetooth keyboard for her phone. She had initially planned to buy one online, but upon reflection, realized that online purchases would likely never reach her. Thus, her only option was to visit a physical store to see if they had a suitable model.

Well, she mused, these few kilometers of walking could count as both exercise and a way to gather material for her novel.

No sooner had Yu Yinlian stepped out of the school gates than she spotted a girl in a Taisugi High School uniform standing beneath the shade of a tree not far from the entrance, silently observing the campus.

The girl was quite beautiful—Yu Yinlian personally thought she was only slightly less striking than Zhong Tian—yet her complexion seemed poor, and her hair appeared long neglected.

Moreover…

Her eyes were the same lake-blue as her own.

‘Colored contacts?’

‘Or was it… that she, like herself and Zhong Tian, was also an ability user?’

After observing silently for a long while, the beautiful girl turned and departed, quickly vanishing from Yu Yinlian’s sight.

****

Upon waking that morning, Yu Naixi found herself overcome by an inexplicable, intense longing to return to school.

By the time she realized what she was doing, she had already changed into her school uniform and left the house.

After watching from outside the school gates for a considerable time, Yu Naixi ultimately managed to suppress the inexplicable urge within her, turning to head home.

Today, the headache that had plagued her for so long had vanished. The voice of her other self was silent, and she no longer felt that other self occupying her body.

This unusual state did not fill Yu Naixi with pleasant surprise; instead, it only deepened her sense of unease.

Reaching the intersection, she pulled out her phone and hailed a ride-sharing car.

****

Driven by curiosity, Yu Yinlian continued to follow the beautiful, blue-eyed girl.

Knowing she couldn’t be seen, she confidently remained very close.

She actually felt a slight urge to deactivate her ability and approach the girl for a brief conversation, wondering if, after talking, the girl might remember her. The girl had called a ride-sharing car, which was estimated to arrive in two minutes, leaving ample time.

Just as she prepared to deactivate her ability and speak to the girl, a sudden meow diverted her attention.

It was a plump, dark blue cat.

‘Tom?’

Tom, the senior cat from school, had inexplicably appeared here. He swaggered over to Yu Yinlian’s feet and then plopped down with a thud, pinning her right foot.

While not so heavy that she couldn’t lift her foot, his weight nonetheless made Yu Yinlian pause, prompting her to try and move Tom from her foot.

But Tom, with astonishing speed, extended a paw and swatted Yu Yinlian’s hand away.

Yu Yinlian was instantly stunned.

‘You… you can actually see me?’

‘Meow!’

Tom’s golden eyes fixed intently on Yu Yinlian, and even without shared language, this gaze provided Yu Yinlian with her answer.

It had never occurred to Yu Yinlian that this senior cat, Tom, would be able to perceive her.

This brought to mind old folk tales: that cats could see what humans could not.

‘To think I’d confirm it this way…’

She bent down, intending to pick Tom up, but he remained uncooperative, maintaining a grumpy feline expression and batting Yu Yinlian’s hands away with his ‘cat paws’.

Yu Yinlian couldn’t even manage to pet him.

Before her, the ride-sharing car the blue-eyed girl had hailed had arrived. The girl climbed in, and the vehicle, along with her, departed from Yu Yinlian’s sight.

At that moment, Tom flipped over, then swiftly and agilely executed a ‘wall jump’ off a nearby tree, landing gracefully on Yu Yinlian’s head.

Yu Yinlian instinctively tried to duck, but Tom was simply too fast; before she could even react, he had already settled heavily atop her head.

‘Tom, you’re so heavy! Can you please get down? I need to go!’

‘Meow!’

No matter what Yu Yinlian said or how she tried to dislodge him, Tom steadfastly refused to come down from her head, as immovable as a mountain.

Resigning herself, Yu Yinlian set off towards her original destination, a heavy lump of a cat perched atop her head.

‘She wondered what the senior cat on her head looked like to others…’

She only knew that any real-world object she touched immediately gained the attribute of being unobservable. However, she was uncertain about what state a living creature would enter after making contact with her.

‘Could it be that, to others, Tom was now simply floating in mid-air?’

Yu Yinlian felt a slight urge to return to reality, just to see if she could pull Tom into the unobservable world.

Yet she dared not try, fearing that while she might be able to bring Tom into this world, she would lack the ability to bring him out again.

‘Wouldn’t that make him as miserable as herself?’

‘Meow!’

Tom let out another meow, its meaning unclear to her.

‘Never mind, even if Tom was floating, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t her problem anyway…’

With Tom still atop her head, she continued towards her destination.

****