Chapter 79: Courtship

Courtship: Human: I Just Want to Be Her Mom

For some reason, as they chatted, the wolf got angry again.

She went from lying on the bed in a weird pose to standing up on it and bouncing around, her feet stomping nonstop on the mattress.

Ji Yingran watched the bed with concern. “Stop bouncing. The bed can’t take all that stomping. It might collapse.”

Mu Ci ignored her and kept stomping. “Who’s itchy, you stupid human?”

So unromantic!

As she spoke, Mu Ci pinched the hem of her nightgown and swiftly pulled it off over her head, tossing it right onto Ji Yingran’s face.

“You’re disqualified. I won’t wear your crappy clothes anymore.”

The gown covered her face like a hood, blocking Ji Yingran’s vision. She hurriedly pulled it off.

As soon as she removed the gown, Ji Yingran opened her mouth to speak—only to see the naked “wolf” right in front of her.

Ji Yingran froze for a moment, her gaze lingering on Mu Ci’s body for two seconds. Then she snapped out of it and hurriedly looked away.

“What are you doing? Why did you suddenly take your clothes off?” Ji Yingran couldn’t help scolding her.

“I take them off if I want to. I’m not wearing your crappy clothes anymore. Who told you my body was itchy?” Mu Ci felt no shame whatsoever.

In her eyes, there didn’t seem to be much difference between wearing clothes or not.

“Put it back on, quick.” Ji Yingran kept her head turned away, avoiding looking, and held out the nightgown.

“No.” Mu Ci slapped the offered gown away.

Ji Yingran kept her head turned, refusing to look—until she heard the sound of someone climbing out the window nearby.

She glanced over and saw a naked figure, pale and bare, clambering out the window to leave.

This terrified Ji Yingran. She forgot all about not peeking and dashed over, grabbing Mu Ci just as she was about to escape through the window.

“You’re not wearing anything. How dare you go outside like that?” Ji Yingran was speechless.

“None of your business. Let go!” Mu Ci tried to shake her off.

Ji Yingran gripped her wrist tightly and wouldn’t let go. “You can’t go out naked. At least put on some clothes. What if you run into someone on the street? Aren’t you afraid of people seeing you?”

Ji Yingran figured with Mu Ci’s stubborn temper, she’d keep struggling and it’d take a while to talk her down. To her surprise, Mu Ci stopped all her movements.

She stopped struggling and quit trying to climb out the window. Instead, she stared at Ji Yingran with a strange look on her face.

Ji Yingran felt baffled by the stare, but even more uncomfortable about Mu Ci being completely naked.

Mu Ci looked her up and down, as if it was Ji Yingran who was the naked one, not her.

Ji Yingran didn’t understand at first—until Mu Ci spoke.

“You say you don’t like this wolf, and we’re not that close, right? So what if other people see me naked? Why do you care? You’re not happy about it? Pretty possessive, huh.”

Ji Yingran: “??”

What nonsense was this wolf imagining now? She was done with her. What did it have to do with possessiveness? No matter who it was, Ji Yingran wouldn’t let anyone streak out naked…

She didn’t dare let go, afraid Mu Ci would bolt if she slipped. Clutching her wrist, Ji Yingran shrugged off her own jacket and wrapped it around Mu Ci.

Mu Ci didn’t resist, but she grumbled, “What ugly clothes. This wolf doesn’t wear just anything.”

Ji Yingran gritted her teeth. “It’s still better than going out naked.”

Mu Ci snorted coldly. “Don’t be so possessive over someone else’s body.”

Ji Yingran: “…”

Who was possessive over her body? She was just afraid Mu Ci would do something insane like streaking. Normal people wouldn’t, but this wolf? Hard to say.

Ji Yingran didn’t dare say any of that aloud, worried it’d upset Mu Ci and she’d strip off the jacket she’d just managed to put on her.

After buttoning up the jacket, with Mu Ci finally covered, Ji Yingran let out a long sigh of relief.

This wolf came up with a new trick every single day. Sooner or later, she’d give her a heart attack…

Mu Ci showed no gratitude at all. Even after Ji Yingran dressed her, she rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Mu Ci’s attention shifted. Her gaze landed on the nightstand not far away.

Ji Yingran followed her line of sight. On the table sat Mu Ci’s diary, with its yellow cover all wrinkled and battered.

After picking up her diary earlier, Ji Yingran had left it by the bed and forgotten to return it—until now.

Before Ji Yingran could explain, Mu Ci dashed over in a flash, snatched the diary into her arms, and eyed her warily.

“How did my notebook end up here? Did you sneak a peek?”

Ji Yingran felt zero guilt. With Mu Ci’s diary—page after page of scribbles even more bizarre than a fill-in-the-blank puzzle or Morse code—who would bother peeking?

“Despicable human. You dared peek and even hid it away. You don’t plan to give it back, do you? Keeping my stuff and still saying you don’t like me.”

No matter the topic, she always circled back to “and you still say you don’t like me.”

Ji Yingran’s lips parted, then closed. She could tell the wolf was desperately seeking confirmation on that one thing.

She wanted to hear Ji Yingran say she liked her.

But Ji Yingran couldn’t bring herself to casually say “I like you” now that she understood Mu Ci’s feelings.

Deep down, Ji Yingran knew her own “like” was worlds apart from what the wolf imagined. They weren’t the same at all.

Ji Yingran’s prolonged silence upset Mu Ci. Hugging her diary tight, she climbed out the window and left.

Ji Yingran sighed softly but didn’t stop her. At least she was wearing clothes now; it was fine if she went outside.

Knock knock.

Someone rapped on the door, followed by Lady Ou’s voice. “Ranran, are you up yet?”

Ji Yingran glanced around the room, confirmed nothing was amiss, then hurried to open the door.

“Mom, what’s up?”

Lady Ou looked tense. “You’re up. The walk-in closet is a total mess. I think we had a break-in.”

Ji Yingran blinked, then remembered the summer nightgown Mu Ci was wearing.

She had a habit of packing away summer clothes every winter, and the gown Mu Ci wore was one she’d stowed away long ago.

Putting two and two together, she realized the walk-in closet’s chaos must be from the wolf digging it out.

Ji Yingran quickly explained, “No, we didn’t have a thief. It was me—I was looking for clothes.”

Lady Ou was surprised. “You did that? What clothes were you looking for that you had to trash the closet like that?”

Ji Yingran didn’t get it at first—not until she went to the walk-in closet and saw the disaster inside. No wonder Lady Ou thought there’d been a burglary.

The wardrobe’s neatly folded clothes had all been yanked out and tossed haphazardly on the floor. Some were even draped over the window.

Shoes from the rack were scattered everywhere, one here, one there.

Every drawer stood wide open.

In short, it looked like a bomb had gone off.

Lady Ou smacked Ji Yingran on the back in annoyance. “What were you looking for to make such a mess?!”

Ji Yingran said, “Mom, don’t be mad. I’ll clean it up right away.”

“You child…” Lady Ou wanted to say more but suddenly remembered Ji Yingran’s recent emotional instability. Was she venting by throwing clothes around?

“What happened with that boy in the end?” Lady Ou changed the subject abruptly.

“Huh? What boy?” Ji Yingran was confused.

“The one from the other day. You told me he confessed to you, and you didn’t know what to do.”

Ji Yingran caught on. Lady Ou had mistaken Mu Ci for a boy—which made sense. When older folks heard about romance, they assumed opposite-sex first.

Ji Yingran touched her nose, feeling a bit guilty. Gender wasn’t even the biggest issue; the real problem was that she wasn’t human at all—she was a wolf.

“I haven’t figured it out yet. I don’t know how to. Before this, I just wanted to be her mom.”

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

Lady Ou froze. “What? You want to be his mom?”

Ji Yingran knew she’d messed up and waved her hands frantically. “No, no! I was joking. The closet’s such a mess—I’ll go clean it now.”

With that, she scurried into the walk-in closet and got busy.

Lady Ou watched her for a moment, opening her mouth a few times as if to speak, but in the end just shook her head and left.

Ji Yingran let out a long breath of relief.

Her initial thought really had just been to be Wolfie’s mom… She’d raised three cats and a dog, always thinking of herself as their mom. Raising a wolf wasn’t that different; she just wanted to be her mom too.

Being a mom or a friend—either family or friendship—would’ve been fine. That was always Ji Yingran’s view. Romance had never crossed her mind.

Dating a wolf? She’d never even considered it…

In the neighboring yard.

Mu Ci held up her smartwatch and, as usual, paraded it in front of Qing Li to show off. Predictably, they ended up arguing.

Afterward, she sprawled on a deck chair, flipped open her wrinkled diary, and began today’s entry.

[Today was another failure for the two-legged beast.]

[She flirted with this wolf every day before, but now she says “like” isn’t the same as “like.”]

[Damn it!]

[Disqualified! Negative score! Negative score!]

[I specially wore her nightgown and struck a sexy pose, but she said my body was itchy. What a stupid human.]

[But she seemed shy when I was naked.]

[No more clothes from now on. I’ll strip for her every day.]

After finishing the diary, Mu Ci picked up her phone and fiddled with it, studying it from every angle.

She tapped on the search bar, dying to type out her question. But with her painfully limited education, she couldn’t manage this character or that one, didn’t even recognize some of them.

In the end, she stumbled upon the miraculous voice-to-text feature. It flung open the doors to a whole new world.

Holding down the voice-to-text button, she asked the phone, “How do I tempt the Human into courting This Wolf—but have This Wolf reject her anyway? She’ll need to ask at least five times. Three would work too, at minimum twice. If absolutely necessary, once might just barely do…”

Her standards sank lower and lower.