Chapter 56: Forced to Work

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

Amid Mei's startled scream, she yanked her hand free and leapt into Kiana's arms. Kiana instinctively caught Mei in a princess carry. The three of them stared at the stick-figure cat, which had its hands on its hips, its simplistic eyes frowning at Kiana.

The cat extended its paw, grabbed a pencil from the side, and wrote a message on the blank space next to it.

[Are you all crazy?]

This scene looked even more frightening, causing Kiana and Mei to gasp. The only one not scared was Bronya, who was contemplating how the cat had come to life.

As they were still confused, the stick-figure cat suddenly seemed to realize something. It quickly erased the message it had written with the eraser on the other end of the pencil and returned to its original pose, perfectly still.

Just as they were still trying to understand the situation, Tom came over with a bunch of tools. He looked at Kiana and Mei, who were still in a princess carry in front of his blueprint, and frowned.

What were these two women doing? Acting in a play? Or were they flirting?

Tom didn't dwell on the question for long.

Ignoring the three of them, he walked to the blackboard, took down his blueprint, and, with the toolbox and blueprint in hand, headed towards the bus.

Mei seemed to realize that holding Kiana for so long might not be appropriate and quickly got down from Kiana's arms. She looked at Tom's back and quietly said, "This cat is really getting more and more amazing... Apart from talking, it seems almost omnipotent."

Kiana chimed in, "Yes, it's even managed to bring drawings to life. It's really incredible."

"Being able to use a magnet to attract Bronya's Project Bunny, regardless of the perspective, defies normal understanding. That cat is truly terrifying."

While they were discussing, a pair of cat ears suddenly appeared among them.

The three looked and saw Tom standing next to them.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Mei, having gathered all her over-the-top reactions, jumped up high. This time, she was caught not by Kiana but by Bronya, who had summoned her Project Bunny.

Tom looked at Mei's exaggerated reaction and initially thought about teasing her like before, but then recalled Li Huan's instructions and decided against it.

"Uh, you're... Tom, right?"

Kiana asked tentatively, and Tom nodded with a series of steps.

"Do you need something from us?"

Tom nodded and gestured towards the toolbox on the ground.

For some reason, Kiana and the others understood Tom's meaning: "You, or rather, a cat, carrying some stuff alone is a bit troublesome, so you want us to help?"

Tom nodded emphatically in agreement.

The three exchanged glances, but before they could respond, Tom had somehow pulled out three safety helmets and, at a speed almost too fast to see, placed them all on their heads.

Then, Tom also donned a safety helmet on his own head, grabbed a hammer and a drill, and transformed into a construction cat rushing towards the bus.

As soon as Tom started running, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya felt an invisible, mysterious force driving them to follow Tom.

The moment they made contact with the bus, a strange gray-white smoke enveloped them, obscuring everyone, including the cat, the people, and the bus, leaving only the clattering sounds.

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"Hey, wake up, wake up!"

Li Huan, sleeping, was jolted awake by Kiana.

"What's the matter..."

Li Huan grumbled as he pulled the sleeping bag over himself, "I haven't slept long. Let me sleep a bit more."

"Sleep what sleep! What time is it? You can't sleep at a time like this!"

Kiana grabbed the sleeping bag and, with a forceful pull, flipped Li Huan, who then tumbled several times inside the sleeping bag before crashing to the ground.

"Dammit!"

Li Huan cursed as he emerged from the sleeping bag. If it weren't for his remarkable resilience, he might have been hurt badly from the fall.

"How else was I supposed to wake you up?"

Kiana, out of breath, clapped her hands, "You're sleeping comfortably by yourself while the three of us are working?"

Hearing this, Li Huan looked at Kiana.

Kiana, who now had a yellow safety helmet on and was covered in grime and sweat, was panting heavily, her white uniform drenched and sticking to her, revealing her figure.

Although she was only in her teens, Kiana's physique was already impressive.

Kiana seemed to notice Li Huan's gaze and threatened, "What are you staring at? Keep looking and I'll gouge out your eyes."

Li Huan almost burst into laughter at Kiana's threat. Her look of extreme exhaustion from what seemed like heavy manual labor only made her threat seem ineffective and less intimidating.

Noticing Li Huan's odd expression, Kiana sensed something, "Are you trying not to laugh?"

"No, no." Li Huan suppressed his laughter and forced himself to be serious, "My moral standards are high; I usually don't laugh—unless I can't help it."

Kiana, exhausted from the effort of flipping Li Huan earlier, gave up on further confrontation.

"What happened here?"

Despite the amusement, Li Huan asked the crucial question.

"It was your cat's doing." Kiana replied weakly, "It made us three help him and forced these helmets on us. We ended up following him to work."

Hearing this, Li Huan looked around.

Nearby, Mei and Bronya were either crouched or sitting on the ground, both looking as grimy and exhausted as Kiana.

"My stamina is better, so I managed to wake you up."

Kiana, sitting down, said, "I'm done in, I need a break."

Li Huan looked around but found that Tom and the bus were missing.

"Where's Tom?"

"It?" Kiana answered, "He drove the bus out ten minutes ago. He seemed to be testing if it could drive, but he should be back soon."

As Kiana finished speaking, a horn and headlights sounded from the door.

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