Trapped In Paradise
After getting her nails done, Ning Chu’s mood was visibly lifted.
The tip of the tail under her skirt swayed happily, her steps grew lighter, her brows curved into a smile, and her eyes seemed to sparkle a little more brightly.
She kept rubbing her thumbnail over her other nails, enjoying the smooth, rounded texture, lowering her head to admire the pretty rosy sheen. When she held Wen Yang’s hand, she even deliberately brushed her fingertips against his palm.
“Don’t mess around, it tickles.”
“Look at my nails~”
“Yeah, yeah, they look great.”
“Right~ I told you this color would look good!”
Even back when she was still a man, Ning Chu had never been able to resist pretty, cute things. It was just that, constrained by pride, she’d never dared to show it openly. But now she was a proper girl.
It wasn’t that men had no nice clothes to wear, but clearly they weren’t mainstream. Even wearing something pink might get you strange looks.
Now, people only looked at her with admiration and envy.
As she grew more accustomed to life as a pretty girl, only one thought remained in Ning Chu’s mind:
If only she didn’t have to get pregnant and give birth~
She’d heard it was painful, and ten months of pregnancy would ruin her figure. And thinking about how she used to be a man made her even more resistant to the idea of pregnancy.
That would be the ultimate form of “falling into womanhood,” right? Absolutely impossible for her!
After being scared once before, Ning Chu had become much stricter about contraception. Even last night at the hotel, when Wen Yang didn’t have suitable protection with him, she’d taken a contraceptive pill right away.
“Wen Yang, what if I don’t want to have kids in the future…” After her thoughts went on a wild loop, Ning Chu asked him expectantly.
Wen Yang nodded indifferently. “Then don’t.”
He had no interest in carrying on the family line anyway. God knew how long it had been since he’d gone to visit his long-dead parents.
“Mm!” Ning Chu nodded hard.
Agreement reached! No kids in the future!
“I hate kids! Every single one of them is annoying as hell!” She frowned, looking completely unwilling. “What if the kid turns out to have the same personality as me? Wouldn’t I be driven crazy by them!”
“With you saying that, your mom wasn’t driven crazy by you, was she?” Wen Yang teased.
“That’s because my mom used to be hands-off~ She was usually working away from home.”
Wen Yang smiled and nodded. “Alright, we won’t have kids.”
“See! Kids are such a pain! Even Black Bean, who’s so obedient and well-behaved, still manages to make my mom angry every day! She calls me every few days just to complain~”
Ning Chu had always disliked kids. Black Bean was the only exception—cute, with cat ears and a tail, obedient and well-behaved—so she didn’t find her that annoying.
Other than Black Bean, she’d always had a deep-seated hatred for little brats!
As they walked and stopped along the way, Ning Chu’s attention was quickly drawn to the clothing stores along the street. Her big eyes flickered as she searched the display windows for pretty outfits.
“I don’t think I have many summer outfits for girls.”
She only had a handful of summer clothes: the JK uniform Wen Yang had given her, plus two sets her mom bought her the first time she went home after becoming a girl. Other than that—nothing.
“If you want to buy some, then buy them. That set looks pretty good.”
“A spaghetti-strap short dress~ Isn’t that showing too much skin?”
“Is it?”
She imagined herself wearing a strappy short dress, inadvertently showing off her curves. Her tender little face quickly flushed red.
Even though fashion in this parallel world was much bolder and more open, she still hadn’t fully adapted to it despite being a succubus now.
Just like how couples often have sex out in the open around campus, she still had no intention of “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
“Then wear it at home for me to see?” Wen Yang lowered his head and teased the little succubus with a grin.
“Then I might as well wear sexy lingerie~” Ning Chu muttered softly, tugging Wen Yang toward the mall. “Let’s go watch a movie. It’s still a while before summer, there’s no need to rush to buy clothes.”
“Sure. What do you want to watch?”
“I’ve already picked! A horror movie!”
“???”
Wen Yang’s mouth twitched, question marks practically popping up over his head. “You’re not even into horror movies at all, are you?”
After several experiments, he’d long since realized that when it came to this kind of thing, Ning Chu was actually braver than he was. Whether it was horror films or horror games, she could keep a straight face.
“They say online that it’s super scary! Come watch it with me~ It’s exciting~”
“Exciting, I believe,” he sighed in resignation. “Guess I’ll risk my life to accompany you.”
“Don’t look like you’re going to your death~” Ning Chu giggled and poked his cheek. “You’re a grown man, what are you scared of!”
“….”
In the end, Wen Yang still went with Ning Chu into the horror movie theater.
The horror film had great reviews online, but in reality there were pitifully few screenings. The theater only had seven or eight people scattered around, and Ning Chu and Wen Yang sat toward the back, undisturbed.
This let Ning Chu shamelessly let the tip of her tail slip out from under her skirt. She happily rested her feet on Wen Yang’s thigh, leaning sideways, half-sitting, half-lying against him with zero regard for posture, a bucket of popcorn in her arms.
As the movie started, eerie background music poured in from all directions. Wen Yang’s expression grew tense. He glanced at Ning Chu, only to see her munching like a hamster, her cheeks stuffed full.
He couldn’t understand why this girl liked horror movies.
The movie opened with a classic jump-scare at the door, making everyone jolt and instantly dragging them into the atmosphere.
Ning Chu perked up, straightened her posture, and stared intently at the big screen. After a while, as the plot and the horror vibe deepened, her body unconsciously leaned over. She instinctively hugged Wen Yang’s arm, her shoulders trembling slightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s so scary…”
“……”
Wen Yang’s face had gone a bit pale. Even though he was too scared to look at the big screen himself, feeling the soft, trembling body in his arms gave him a surge of courage from deep inside. He spoke in a firm, steady voice to comfort her: “It’s okay. I’m here.”
At that moment, he felt like Ning Chu’s personal savior.
“Mmm~”
Ning Chu buried her head in Wen Yang’s chest. As he gently stroked the back of her head, she cooperatively shivered even harder.
“Ah!!!”
Wen Yang’s ears nearly burst from the sudden scream.
If nothing unexpected happened, it was the girl in the front row who screamed first, and then Ning Chu, half a beat late, followed with her own shriek.
He himself was badly startled too, but he still forced himself to act calm, hugging Ning Chu even tighter in distress.
The silly girl was so scared her reactions were a half-beat slow…
Ning Chu finally understood why girls were all such scaredy-cats, especially when there was a man around.
She laughed inwardly but played her role even more smoothly. She kept glancing at the screen with a “I want to watch but I’m too scared” look, then, like an ostrich, screaming and diving back into Wen Yang’s arms, enjoying his comfort.
By the end of the movie, Wen Yang’s ears were practically deaf.
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Link for character illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IxOucqi87ss3bmqfO9zI2gYiM1Gy8Hz2