Jiang Chi would never have guessed that the so-called private investigator would use such a plain and unremarkable method of shooting for investigation.
Nor would Ji Yuannian know that her own older brother had already started suspecting her, without her even noticing. She was even less aware of how much longer this “male disguise” she’d tried so hard to maintain could hold out.
But no matter what the future holds, life still needs to go on. Just like now, in Dorm 802, with its strange yet harmonious and oddly ambiguous atmosphere.
Ever since they returned from that dinner with Tang Xueting, Yao Shiming had been clinging to Hu Li every day, practically glued together, sweet and tender, constantly calling her “Little Lili” in such a syrupy tone that Ji Yuannian, who was just an onlooker, broke out in goosebumps all over.
And when it came to the playboy Luo Yikang and his good buddy Liu Yao, Ji Yuannian always felt there was something odd about their relationship. Sure, it was normal for guys to bathe and scrub each other’s backs, but why did they always stagger out of the bathroom looking so unsteady, just like Ji Yuannian after being “drained dry” by the Spring Sprite back in the day?
As for Liu Yao’s attitude and strictness towards Luo Yikang, it made Ji Yuannian think of one phrase—“wife control”.
Isn’t Wanquan City still some distance from Chengdu?
This thought had floated through Ji Yuannian’s mind who knows how many times.
“Old Ji, want to play a game? Super Mario Kart.”
Just as the self-proclaimed tough beauty was starting to suspect whether her roommates were gay, a cheerful male voice sounded by her side, interrupting her thoughts.
Ji Yuannian turned to see Yao Shiming standing beside her at some point, eyes sparkling with excitement. “If you join me and Hu Li, we’ll have a three-man team.”
“No,” Ji Yuannian declined, her hands still typing on the keyboard without pause, not even bothering to look up. “I’ve got things to do.”
“Next time, for sure.”
Rejected, Yao Shiming didn’t push, just shrugged his shoulders and turned back toward Hu Li to continue pestering her.
Seeing this, Ji Yuannian’s expression grew a little strange, but she didn’t say anything, just buried herself back in front of the computer.
A couple of days ago, Ji Yuannian had another real dream. As usual, Jiang Chi and she were still the main characters, but this time the dream took a strange turn…
The first half of the dream was normal—just the ordinary yet interesting life of a senior in high school. But as the dream progressed, things started to change.
In the dream, her temper became erratic, her mental state unstable, and she grew increasingly attached to Jiang Chi.
She wasn’t actually falling for Jiang Chi as a person, but was obsessed with the ecstasy he made her feel—caught between pleasure and delirium.
As she relentlessly pestered him, new tricks between them kept cropping up: electric toys, outdoor exhibitionism, ever deeper intimacy… An endless wave of pleasure wrapped her up, making her crave more and more, all in pursuit of the ultimate paradise of desire.
By the end of the dream, she died in bed, spent to death in her pursuit of that paradise of pure desire.
It wasn’t a tragic ending like before, nor was it some gruesome scene like last time when her head was split open. This dream’s direction was… strange.
That’s right, just plain strange.
The dream transcended reality, yet was also based on it. Ji Yuannian didn’t know if her future would go like in the dream, but she could feel her desires growing heavier, especially during this period when Jiang Chi had ordered her to abstain.
If she used to be a dam, with desire constantly flowing in but able to let some water out with Jiang Chi’s help, now she could only take in more and more with no release—sooner or later, the water level would surpass the warning line, and then—bang! She’d collapse.
“So, what on earth are you?” Rubbing the silver coin in her hand, Ji Yuannian narrowed her eyes and muttered softly.
After all those strange dreams, and the coin heating up each time she woke, even someone as thick-skinned as Ji Yuannian could sense that something was off.
Because of the silver coin, she could change gender, and she now had a fake identity as “Ji Qingchan”. It was also why she and Jiang Chi were so entangled.
Her fingertips traced over the side of the coin, where the elegant lady’s profile was composed of layers upon layers of thin vine-like patterns, as if that would help her sort out the confusion in her heart.
“This is for Big Brother. I wish you a future just as brilliant as a song, filled with infinite possibilities.”
That soft, adorable shota voice seemed to echo in her ears once again, and Ji Yuannian’s gaze sharpened.
Silver coin, gender swap, transformation, infinite possibilities—yet even now she didn’t understand how the silver coin worked.
So… Clutching the coin tightly in her hand, Ji Yuannian forcefully hit the Enter key and sent off the message she’d written.
“Question: As a newbie author designing a novel, the main character meets a green-haired shota at the beginning, receives a silver coin as a cheat, and then goes through a gender swap. The protagonist also has a lot of dreams in the middle of the story.”
“What other abilities should the cheat have besides gender swap?”
She posted this on Tieba. As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. Ji Yuannian was seeking inspiration from the game experts there.
Within five or six minutes, plus the extra cash she spent to get more views and a homepage recommendation, there were already over ten replies.
“Gender swap? Like Pineapple Bun’s stories?”
“Ribbit! Quick, subdue the poster and take them home to be a wife!”
“Tsk tsk tsk, a cheat? Isn’t just having a brain enough?”
“……”
Ji Yuannian’s eyes flew over dozens of replies, but none were helpful—they were all just jokes or totally off-topic. Not one got to the point.
But soon, her gaze landed on the reply at the twenty-fifth floor.
It’s Vine Monster, Not Tentacle Monster: “Life holds infinite possibilities, and so does the future. That’s why it’s called ‘possibility’, Big Brother—wait, no, Big Sister. That’s its power.”
Infinite possibility?
She suddenly remembered that conversation she had months ago with that green-haired little shota. Her finger moved almost on its own as she clicked on the user’s avatar: a lush green vine, with a hint of evil elegance, strikingly beautiful at first glance.
Ming Yue Er Chang Zhong: “Can you share your thoughts on the cheat in my novel? Say anything, I don’t mind criticism.”
It’s Vine Monster, Not Tentacle Monster: “The power of ‘possibility’ is to observe the future. Life is brilliant like a song, and so is the future.”
“But remember, the future is infinite, ever-changing, not fixed. Every moment, every second, the future shifts unpredictably.”
“‘Possibility’ only lets you see the greatest possibility for the future, but it isn’t the final outcome.”
That actually made a weird sort of sense. Maybe she could use this idea to explain her recent dreams.
Ji Yuannian thought to herself.
Who would have thought there’d be such hidden dragons and crouching tigers on Tieba—definitely a newbie author who hasn’t been beaten down by the web novel sites yet.
She was just about to type a reply when a little red notification popped up—a new message from that user.
“Oh right, Big Sister, the cotton candy was delicious. Thank you.”
“Ah! Mian Mian’s coming to confiscate my phone again, I gotta go offline!”
Cotton candy?!!
The elegant beauty’s ink-black eyes narrowed in an instant!