February 11th, warm sunlight slanting down
The gentle morning light streamed through the windows of the lecture hall, weaving a warm golden grid across the beige desks.
My fingers, gripping a black neutral pen, paused for a moment.
As I drew the final coordinate axis on the draft paper, my sleeve slipped down, revealing a slender wrist that seemed oddly familiar—eleven days had passed since that absurd transformation, and my life had finally returned to a strange sort of calm.
As if, aside from my gender, nothing else had changed.
Yesterday’s fiasco with the tutoring job had me running around the Police Station for half the day, but the outcome was rather satisfying.
The evidence was solid, so I wasn’t found to have used excessive force.
As for that teacher surnamed Li, he’d have to stay in for a few days.
My only regret was that my phone screen protector was ruined.
After all that chaos, my expenses for the month went up by another ten yuan. As for the cracked phone case…
“Xiaxia, help, what on earth is this Fourier Transform?”
A wail from the seat next to me interrupted my train of thought.
When Xiao Huayue pushed her textbook in front of me, the warmth of her breath, mingled with the sweet peach scent of her hand cream, rushed into my nose.
Instinctively, I edged half an inch away.
Even though I was now a girl, I still wasn’t used to this kind of close physical distance.
I casually tucked a strand of black hair behind my ear, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the messy notes scribbled in her textbook.
“It’s just the conversion between the time domain and the frequency domain, that’s all.”
“Ah, what’s the time domain and frequency domain?”
She suddenly sprawled across the desk, the top of her head brushing my shoulder as she started to act spoiled.
“Ugh, my head’s so itchy, feels like I’m actually growing a brain.”
Her metal earrings jingled with her movements, reminding me of the sharp sting on my fingertips this morning when I fastened my bra—some changes, after all, were impossible to ignore.
The girl asking me questions in class was Xiao Huayue.
Like Bai Shuyu, she’d been my classmate in high school.
Since the few of us had always sat at adjacent desks, we’d naturally become close.
Gently closing my neat notebook, I looked into her bright, sparkling almond eyes and sighed helplessly.
“It’s actually pretty simple. Just read the book a few more times.”
No matter what, anyone who got into the same university and major as me couldn’t possibly have poor study skills.
If I could understand something, there was no reason she couldn’t as well.
“Ugh, Xiaxia, that’s so mean. How can you expect a hopeless student with a Major Exam goal of sixty points to master advanced math?”
Her fluffy woolly curls shimmered with a chestnut glow in the sunlight.
She looked just like a cute squirrel.
Looking at the vibrant Cartoon Sweater peeking out from under her trench coat, I suddenly realized that this was probably what a nineteen-year-old girl was supposed to be like.
“All right then, what about the Fourier Series?”
“What series? What’s that, some new product from Xi Tea?”
“Forget it, let’s just start from the beginning. I’ll explain from the start.”
“Yay, love you~”
Sitting next to me, Xiao Huayue looked genuinely delighted.
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and nuzzled my cheek.
From her perspective, there was nothing inappropriate about this sort of behavior.
Close girlfriends probably all did this.
But my heart was pounding so hard I could barely breathe, and even my ears flushed uncontrollably.
“Ahem! Be serious, let’s study.”
“Yes sir! Loyal! Devoted!”
Just as I adjusted my mindset to teach Xiaoyue advanced math, my phone screen suddenly lit up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of “Yan Dong” flashing across the lock screen.
A sharp pang pierced my chest.
The cheap Jasmine Scent of my shampoo was scattered by a passing breeze, and for a moment, I seemed to smell again that lingering Sandalwood Essential Oil on him, along with his lazy, drawn-out voice: “Miss Lin, mop the floor…”
That physical discomfort had probably started after I got back from the Police Station yesterday afternoon.
Exhausted, I’d been kneeling on the floor, figuring out how to cut expenses as I scrubbed up tea stains.
Meanwhile, the culprit who’d spilled the black tea was lounging on the sofa with his legs crossed, topping up his tenth 648-yuan game pack on his phone.
“Young Master, could you move over a bit? The tea’s spreading to your feet.”
“Fine.”
It should have been nothing, just him moving aside, but after he did, he started mocking me.
“Lin Yunxia, your pitiful act at the Police Station was really something. Saying ‘I was so scared I kicked him in the groin’—you looked so pitiful I almost believed you.”
The sound of a classmate knocking over a water cup in the front row dragged me back to reality.
I gripped my neutral pen tightly, my fingernails pressing white marks into the scar at the base of my thumb.
The interviewer’s fingers yesterday had dug into my shoulder just like this, his breath reeking of tobacco and sweat behind my ear.
Just because I didn’t show fear didn’t mean I wasn’t afraid.
I just didn’t want my frail mother or Uncle Yan to worry.
“Xiaxia?”
Xiao Huayue tapped the back of my hand with the end of her ballpoint pen.
I jerked my hand away on reflex, and the neutral pen scratched a long ink mark across the draft paper.
“Sorry, let’s continue.”
I forced a smile, trying to adjust my expression, but caught sight of the deep concern in her eyes.
The Police who comforted me at the Police Station yesterday had looked at me the same way.
Back then, sitting on the bench, I gripped a disposable paper cup, hot water rippling at the rim.
“His finger’s broken… this counts as self-defense, right?”
The Police taking notes looked up at me, the fluorescent light reflecting off his glasses.
“Don’t be scared, little girl. The surveillance footage is clear, and you also provided audio and video evidence.”
At that moment, I distinctly saw Yan Dong standing at the mediation room door, his expression dark and frightening…
Which was the real Yan Dong?
I couldn’t figure it out.
After all, I rarely bothered with things unrelated to survival or studying.
But that didn’t stop my mood from being utterly awful at the time.
“Young Master, I’m a normal person, I also…”
But even so, that pretentious “I also want to be comforted sometimes” never made it out of my mouth.
I just shook my head and replied in my usual calm tone, “I get angry when people make things difficult for me, just like now.”
“Miss Lin is angry?”
“I wouldn’t dare. I just don’t feel like talking to Young Master right now.”
The memory stalled at the cold touch of the phone case.
When I was about to leave after my shift, Yan Dong tossed me something still carrying the warmth of his palm—a new phone case, with a Jasmine Petal on the lanyard.
The plastic case wasn’t expensive, and the Jasmine Petal on it was nowhere near as delicate as the one on the Jasmine Hair Tie.
Maybe he’d learned his lesson after I rejected him last time.
“Spiritual compensation for the injured employee.”
He leaned against the entryway cabinet, raising an eyebrow and wearing his usual mocking smile.
When he saw my confusion, he lazily added, “Our company has always excelled in Humanistic Care.”
Yan Dong was always like this, never willing to say things properly.
Like when he gave me the Princess Hairpin—clearly wanting to apologize, but insisting it was just “a whim.”
My fingers unconsciously traced the delicate texture of the Jasmine Petal on the phone case.
I still remembered that moment of daze in the entryway mirror yesterday afternoon.
The Jasmine Hair Tie behind the girl’s ear dangled a red ribbon, the phone case lanyard and hair tie tangled into a bizarre dead knot.
Maybe it was that absurd tenderness that made me blurt out, “If Young Master treats me so well, what if I fall for you?”
He froze for a moment, then suddenly snorted.
“What’s wrong with that? Isn’t it perfectly normal for you to like me? I’m a once-in-a-century, rich, handsome guy.”
Maybe he’d adjusted the Sandalwood Essential Oil in the diffuser, because the scent in the air yesterday afternoon was particularly pleasant.
Of course, if Yan Dong hadn’t said what he did afterward, I might have been in a pretty good mood: “By the way, consider the debt for the Jasmine Tea you drank settled.”
“Heh, Young Master really knows how to settle accounts.”