Cat in College C2

Chapter 2: Male Idol?

Translated by Lime

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Qi Xiaohan boarded the plane. Many classmates were already present, and everyone was greeting each other and sharing which department they were attending or what they would specialize in. The atmosphere was noisy and harmonious.

In the seat next to Qi Xiaohan was a Siamese cat. When she walked over and was about to introduce herself, the Siamese cat quickly turned away and closed its eyes.

The white kitty’s ear moved slightly and she didn’t care much, sitting back in her seat.

Behind her, several canines from the Wolf Clan were misbehaving, their howls and barks were distracting. The white kitty collapsed her ears in order to block out the sound. She was about to lay down and nap when someone poked her head.

“Miaow!”

Quickly, the kitty lifted her head and her wide eyes stared at the human with a fierce look, as if to say she wasn’t easy to bully. Then, she noticed that the person who poked her was a handsome human boy.

Qi Xiaohan’s taste in humans was the same as her owner, Ning Ning. Recently, Ning Ning liked tough-looking guys, and occasionally, she would roast her favorite idol, a pretty, blonde man, in front of her cat. This influenced Qi Xiaohan to prefer a strong and healthy-looking young human male. He must be elegant and refined, fresh and cool, and slightly tan.

However, this young man in front of her—the kitty squinted her eyes, he looked soft and had tender skin. Clearly, he did not meet her expectations.

She might be mistaken, but he seemed vaguely familiar.

The white kitty lifted a paw and unhappily pushed at her head. When the human rubbed her head, her fur had become ruffled and messy. The sensation was uncomfortable.

The boy noticed that the kitty awoke and smiled, showing his canine teeth. He greeted the white cat:

“Hi, my name is Zhou Mingyu. I’m from the Golden Spirit House, and I will be studying in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. I am specializing in Puppet Automation.”

Zhou Mingyu smiled so widely that no one could miss his smile. When people saw him smiling, it usually triggered a positive reaction. He was about to pet the kitty’s head again, when the pretty, snow-white cat glanced at him, slanting her eyes. She gave him a look, one that was vaguely trying to conceal her disdain.

Disdain?

Since Zhou Mingyu was a child, he had never been looked at in this manner by someone. Unexpectedly, a small kitty was now gazing at him with disdain.

The white kitty raised her small face and politely meowed:

“My name is Qi Xiaohan. I’m from the Fire Spirit House and studying in the Department of Control. I am specializing in Spirit Control. Do you need anything?”

As the kitty spoke, she had a slight kitty accent, as if she didn’t speak on a regular basis. She seemed to have a nasal voice of a kitten, soft and squeamish.

“Uh…we are all classmates, I just wanted to come over and introduce myself. Sorry for interrupting your nap.” The boy awkwardly rubbed his nose.

However, the small cat did not go back to sleep and stood up instead, staring at him. She was almost leaning on his face.

“Miaow?”

Qi Xiaohan felt like she was not mistaken earlier, this face was indeed—familiar!

Zhou Mingyu stared into the kitty’s pair of clear, green eyes that had a bit of doubt. They were a pair of beautiful eyes, and Zhou Mingyu was rendered speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.

Next to them, Zhou Mingyu’s friend laughed and patted his shoulder: “Classmate Qi, have you recognized him yet? Seems like you are a kitty who browses the Internet often.”

Qi Xiaohan studied his face keenly. She heard what his friend said and pawed at her chair. Finally, she had recognized him; this human was a trainee of a certain entertainment agency and debuted in a boy band. Later, there weren’t any more updates.

Turns out he was attending university.

It made sense, this boy appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old. Humans around this age were supposed to go to school.

Qi Xiaohan previously saw him on the trending searches. At that time, Zhou Mingyu was an idol who sang and danced. In the articles that had close-up shots of him, his hair had been dyed and he wore eyeliner. Naturally, Qi Xiaohan was unable to recognize him with his current appearance.

The kitty looked at him strangely: “Isn’t your name Zhou Xingchen?”

Zhou Mingyu laughed heartily: “…stage name, it was a stage name. My agency assigned it to me.” 

The kitty nodded and glanced at him, realizing that the plane had not taken off yet. She retrieved a phone from inside her bag and nimbly used her paw to inform Ning Ning.

Zhou Mingyu’s seat was right next to Qi Xiaohan. When he saw that she was unresponsive, he glanced over in curiosity and saw the kitty taking out the latest model of smartphone and using her paws to rapidly text.

-Cat That Loves Spicy Hot Pot: “Ning Ning, I have boarded the plane. I think I forgot to bring my scratching post.”

-Not Changing My Name Until Another Branch Opens: “That’s not important, just buy another one. Are there many classmates around you? Are they friendly?”

-Cat That Loves Spicy Hot Pot: “The cat next to me is okay, very quiet. On my other side is a human who is a little noisy. Apparently he was an idol before this.”

-Not Changing My Name Until Another Branch Opens: “Who? You are so lucky! Let me see!!! rubbinghands.jpg”

-Cat That Loves Spicy Hot Pot: “His stage name is Zhou Xingchen and he has a good temper. He looks like he would be easily bullied.”

Zhou Mingyu: … 

The kitty’s phone display screen was quite big, and Zhou Mingyu saw the entire conversation by accident. This cat was so straight-forward and blunt.

He was around 1.8 meters tall, why did she assume he had a good temper? And he was easy to bully? He could handle ten cats of her size! This damn cat!

Zhou Mingyu had no intention of continuing to watch the cat gossip and gazed out the window. Honestly, it was his first time he attending school here, so he was extremely nervous. For two years, he had spent all day and night studying in order to be accepted to Xunhai Union University. Now that he saw small demons, he became somewhat excited.

Zhou Mingyu turned to ask the kitty:

“Qi Xiaohan, what was the topic for your entrance examination? Did we get the same one? I think that the mathematics portion was difficult this year, I barely made it in—” Zhou Mingyu glanced over and coincidentally saw the kitty opening the camera app.

The white kitty replied, “Can we take a picture? My family wants to see you.”

The kitty was cutely looking up at him, who wouldn’t agree to her simple request?

Zhou Mingyu: “Of course.”

The boy leaned down next to the cat and saw her struggling to prop the phone up with her paws. He reached out to help her and took a selfie. His movements were skilled, even helping the cat appear more beautiful by angling the phone.

After taking the picture, he helped her send the photo to the kitty’s family.

Not Changing My Name Until Another Branch Opens: ! ! !

The phone started to vibrate and countless messages were sent, one by one. It was obvious how the girl on the other side felt.

Zhou Mingyu returned the phone to Qi Xiaohan. Thinking of the constant WeChat messages and the human girl’s excited reaction, the injury that Zhou Mingyu sustained from the unexpected reaction earlier lessened a bit. He wasn’t liked by the cat, but his fans had not abandoned him.

At the very least, the cat’s family were definitely his fans!

The former idol was content.

Qi Xiaohan still wanted to chat with Ning Ning, but saw the flight attendant approaching them. She powered off her phone and stowed it away and was prepared to lay down and nap.

A few moments later, the kitty’s ears perked up. She had remembered something and suddenly glanced at the boy who was now wearing a sleeping mask.

“Wait, you said that you needed to pass an exam to be accepted?”

“Yeah, how else?”

The kitty fell silent and stared at him: “Uh…” 

She didn’t know whether or not to say anything.

Zhou Mingyu noticed her unsure tone and removed his eye mask. He thought about her reaction and his eyes widened in disbelief: “Don’t tell me that you didn’t pass the exam!”

“Miaow…” Hearing his accusatory words, the kitty timidly retracted her claws. 

“The admissions officer directly notified me to attend this school and gave me the admissions notice. He even told me that I received a scholarship. I came to help earn money for my family.” The kitty shifted its weight from side to side with her head lowered, not wanting to appear haughty.

The lion admissions officer was nice. Before he left, he shifted back into his original appearance, a fierce and powerful lion. He carried her in his mouth and walked around the living room, even letting her sit on his back.

_{(T/N: So the admissions officer from last chapter, the lion, had a somewhat human appearance I’m assuming. The author described him as a lion, but didn’t specify the exact appearance. Animals can shapeshift into a human-like appearance in this world/novel.)}

The only time she had seen lions was at the zoo!

Therefore, Qi Xiaohan had a positive impression of all the teachers at this school.

Xunhai Union University was funded by five large powers, but it was not run by any of the five and operated independently. Every year, the scholarship money that was allotted to students was generous. Qi Xiaohan’s family’s hot pot restaurant was short of a tiny amount of money before they could open another branch. When the kitty heard that she could attend school, she immediately packed her luggage.

_{(T/N: This explains Qi Ning’s Username from earlier, ‘Not Changing My Name Until Another Branch Opens’ in case you were wondering about it.)}

Zhou Mingyu leaned against his chair, in shock. With great effort, he tried to suppress his shock. In the end, he was unable to: “Ehh—”

Accidentally, he sighed out loud.

He had been dealt a huge blow.

Zhou Mingyu’s friend also looked at the white kitty in surprise and patted his shoulder to comfort him: “Whatever, no matter how things happened, the results are the same: we’re going to school.”

Zhou Mingyu covered his face and struggled to breathe: “I did over a thousand sets of exam questions—”

Friend: “Sigh.”

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Btw, Zhou Mingyu is not the male lead, it will be obvious when ML appears.

Here is a detailed explanation of how the university is split up from chapter 14:

There are clans, such as the ‘Wolf Clan’ and the ‘Cat Clan’. They are groups of students living in certain areas and are not related to houses/departments.

“The school is divided into five Houses, Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Each House is further divided into many departments, such as the Department of Medicine, the Department of Spells, the Sword Sect, the Department of Control, the Department of Offense, and so on.”

Just know that houses > departments > specialties, Clans are separate. The confusing part is that the character for ‘clan’ and ‘house’ are the same, but the actual use is different.

Hope this helps! If you have any further questions, leave a comment, and I will try to explain as best I can. Later on, if the story gets confusing, I might make a character list and post more explanations to clear things up.

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