I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

"They're here, they're here."

Chen Shuo stared at the bedroom door, not noticing her throwing her slippers away. Hearing the bedroom door close, he quickly went over and opened it. "Dad, what brings you here?"

"What, you're not welcome?"

As he spoke, Chen Jianwen stepped into the house, glanced at his son's doghouse, then turned to look at Chen Shuo. Seeing the slightly tense expression on his face, he couldn't help but chuckle, "You know how to panic?"

"what?"

Chen Shuo was taken aback.

"You went on a blind date yesterday and made the girl run away, right? Her mother told your Aunt Wang about it today, and your Aunt Wang told your mother. Guess what your mother said?"

"What did my mom say?"

Chen Jianwen looked up and thought for a moment, then said, "I forgot what she said, but your mother nagged at home for most of the day. I didn't listen much. Your mother just loves to nag. My ears were tired of listening, so I found an excuse to come over and scold you and get some peace and quiet."

As he spoke, he rummaged in his pocket for a moment, pulled out his phone, turned on the video recording function, pointed the camera at Chen Shuo, and asked, "Are you ready?"

"No, that woman, she..."

Chen Shuo thought that the woman smoked, drank heavily, had tattoos, and loved clubbing; she really didn't meet the standards for a daughter-in-law.

"We'll talk about the rest later. Hurry up and stand still. I'm going to yell at you and record it so I can report back later and save your mom from calling and nagging you again."

"Alright then." Chen Shuo nodded helplessly, lowered his head, and got into character.

Chen Jianwen's emotions were building up very quickly, clearly this wasn't the first time the father and son had done something like this. In just a few seconds, his emotions became quite intense, his face full of heartache and indignation, "Look at you, you graduated but didn't go out to find a job, you just stay at home every day writing your lousy book, do you think you can make money writing books?"

When it came to Chen Shuo's lines, he stiffened his neck and said, "Why not? At least I can support myself."

Chen Jianwen earnestly advised, "Yes, you can support yourself now, but what about in the future?"

Besides, do you think you can find a partner if you just stay at home all day? Do you expect a partner to come to you? You can't expect that.

Your mother and I went to great lengths to find you someone for a blind date, and you ended up making them run away..."

He stopped mid-sentence and looked at the ground.

"Dad, why did you stop..."

Seeing his father suddenly stop, Chen Shuo was a little puzzled. He subconsciously followed his father's gaze and then stopped speaking.

Near the coffee table, a slipper lay quietly tossed about, its pink color quite eye-catching.

"..."

"..."

The father and son remained silent, as they were most afraid of the sudden stillness in the air.

After a long silence, Chen Jianwen finally spoke, his expression extremely complicated, "How did you develop such a fetish, even stealing women's shoes?"

"I...."

Chen Shuo was a little confused, not quite understanding his father's thought process. He opened his mouth to explain, but didn't know how.

Compared to stealing women's shoes, keeping a cat-eared girl in the house is probably more outrageous, and harder for the old man to accept, right?

Given his age, he probably wouldn't associate it with cosplay or anything like that. The most likely scenario is that he mistook Bai Xiaoqi for a monster and then fainted.

Why don't you say you found it?

But picking up women's shoes seems even more perverted than stealing shoes.

Could it be that I wore it myself?

As for the color, just say you like pink, macho colors?

But I can't even fit into size 36 slippers, even though my feet are size 43.

A jumble of thoughts surged through Chen Shuo's mind. After hesitating for a long time, he closed his eyes and said with a look of utter despair, "I just... I couldn't control myself for a moment."

"......"

Upon hearing this, Chen Jianwen fell silent, his feelings indescribable. After a long while, he finally spoke softly: "Ancient literati have a long history of appreciating women's small feet. After the chaos of the Five Dynasties, foot binding became popular in the early Song Dynasty."

This barbaric practice of foot binding continued into the Qing Dynasty, and even intensified, coinciding with the peak of feudal ethics and the distorted thinking of scholars and officials.

Chen Jianwen is a university history professor. Chen Shuo had heard a lot of this kind of popular history since he was a child, but he felt particularly complicated listening to it now. However, the old man's voice continued without stopping.

"As the Qing dynasty's rule became more stable and society began to settle down, a so-called 'golden lotus aesthetic' emerged in the circles of Qing dynasty literati and officials."

They had a perverse fascination with women's bound feet, even going so far as to create a trend of using women's embroidered shoes to hold wine. Among these shoes, those of famous courtesans were the most sought after—this was known as "serving wine in courtesan shoes," and they considered it a refined pursuit.

At this point, Chen Jianwen's face showed genuine heartache and indignation, and it wasn't an act; he was truly heartbroken.

"You write online, so you're practically a literary person. I can understand liking feet, but those people use embroidered shoes. Even if embroidered shoes don't exist now, I could understand you getting high heels, but you stealing slippers... you... you..."

Chen Jianwen was usually open-minded, and as a professor, he was certainly very knowledgeable, but at this moment he was unusually at a loss for words. He didn't know what words to use to describe his son. He was silent for a moment, then asked, "You didn't steal someone's underwear, did you?"

"I didn't," Chen Shuo replied weakly, looking utterly hopeless, wondering when a manned spaceship to Mars would be built.

Waiting online, very anxious.

Hearing this, Chen Jianwen's expression softened slightly, but he was still a little worried. He looked around and walked towards the bedroom. "It's not that I, as your father, don't respect your privacy, it's just that the nature of your matter is different. Let me see your bed and check your wardrobe."

“…”

Seeing this, Chen Shuo rushed over and blocked the doorway.

"......"

Seeing his reaction, Chen Jianwen frowned, stared at his son who was blocking his way for a long time, and his face gradually darkened. He asked, "You really stole underwear?"

"I really didn't."

Chen Shuo is now filled with regret. If he had known it was this, he would have made up any other excuse.

For example, it might be something a friend accidentally left here.

Oh, that reason doesn't seem right.

Who comes to someone's house wearing slippers and doesn't put them back on when they leave?

You can't just say you arrived perfectly fine, but left with a broken leg, so you can't use these slippers anymore.

This is practically rubbing the old man's intelligence into the ground.

He suddenly understood why it's said that one lie requires countless more to cover it up.

I should have just admitted that we had a cat-eared girl in the house; at least I wouldn't be in this predicament now.

I'm having such a hard time.

Chapter Thirteen: Family Misfortune

The father and son faced off for a long time, and the atmosphere remained tense. After a long while, Chen Jianwen took two steps forward and said coldly, "Get out of my way."

"No way." Chen Shuo shook his head, then thought for a moment and added, "Dad, I really didn't steal it. I'm your son, don't you know me?"

"It's precisely because I understand you that I haven't hit you yet. Move aside, let me take a look, and I'll feel at ease."

"no...."

Chen Shuo opened his mouth, unsure how to end the conversation. He glanced back at the closed bedroom door and forced himself to explain.

"Dad, it's like this. Actually, I didn't steal these slippers. I don't have a habit of stealing shoes. These slippers belong to my friend. Her water was cut off at home, so she came here to take a shower."

"Hmm, where is she?" Chen Jianwen patiently waited for him to continue explaining with a stern face.

"She went back now."

"Walking barefoot?"

"She wasn't barefoot, but rather barefoot on one leg. Her other leg was injured, fractured, and in a cast. Plus, they lived quite close by, so..."

At this point, Chen Shuo paused. He didn't believe this reason, not even the old man himself.

"Keep going, don't stop, let's see if you can come up with something fancy." Chen Jianwen sneered.

"Actually, it's like this: the bathroom floor was wet, and while she was washing, she slipped and broke her leg, so this slipper..."

At this point, Chen Shuo fell silent again.

Chen Jianwen waited for a while, and seeing that he stopped talking, he gradually lost patience and continued walking forward, saying, "Move aside."

"Dad, let me continue, I haven't...bang!"

Chen Shuo backed away step by step until he leaned against the door. Then he stumbled. The door wasn't locked from the inside, and the latch was old. As he leaned against it, he accidentally opened the door.

Then, the cat-eared girl he had been carefully hiding appeared before Chen Jianwen, followed by silence among the three of them.

“…”

The air fell silent once more.

Just then, a rapid knocking broke the silence, followed by a slightly anxious voice, "Hello, could you please open the door? I'm Starving Delivery."

"They're here, they're here."

Chen Shuo quickly responded and fled the awkward situation, leaving Chen Jianwen and the cat-eared girl to continue facing each other in silence.

At this moment, Chen Jianwen's expression was unusually bewildered, and he unconsciously looked the other person up and down.

Look at her snow-white long hair, then at her blue pajamas, your gaze sweeps over her bare feet, one bare and one wearing a slipper, and finally settles on her white cat ears.

If he remembers correctly, this style of dressing seems to be quite popular among young people; it's called cosplay in English, which translates to role-playing.

But none of that matters. What matters is that the girl's pajamas look like her son's.

That's it.....

In Ban Gu's "Stories of Emperor Wu of Han" from the Eastern Han Dynasty: When the emperor was a few years old, his eldest daughter, Piao, held him on her lap and asked him what it would be like to have Ajiao as his wife. The emperor laughed and said that if he could have Ajiao as his wife, he would keep her in a golden house.

Suddenly, the story of keeping a mistress in a golden house popped into Chen Jianwen's mind.

Just then, Chen Shuo returned with the takeout, a carton of yogurt tucked under his arm. He glanced at the two people staring at each other, hesitated for a moment, put the food on the coffee table, and squeezed in with a stiff upper lip. "Dad, this is Bai Xiaoqi, my friend. Those slippers are hers. I didn't steal them."

Chen Jianwen turned his gaze back to Chen Shuo, "The one who came to take a bath here?"

"Correct."

Chen Shuo nodded, ignoring the old man's complicated expression, and said to Bai Xiaoqi, "Um... Xiaoqi, this is my dad, you can call him uncle."

"uncle."