After helping Lin Xinyuan finish organizing her belongings, the young man left the dormitory shortly after. Since it was a female dorm, it wasn’t appropriate for Qin Nanfeng to linger. The two agreed to meet again for dinner that evening. Furthermore, during this special period, the school had strictly prohibited visiting other dorms—though whether anyone actually followed that rule was another story.
[Is that your boyfriend?]
Liu Qingyan looked quite surprised. As she looked at Lin Xinyuan, she made several gestures with her hands.
This time, Lin Xinyuan understood. Always the shy one, her heart tightened. Who knows what she was thinking, but she hurriedly nodded: “Y-Yes!”
Seeing the girl’s nervous state, Liu Qingyan’s eyes crinkled into crescent moons from laughing. Her body shook slightly, and her fair, clean, and pretty face was overflowing with amusement.
Feeling as though she were being teased, Lin Xinyuan felt embarrassed. In her shyness, she wanted to retreat to the balcony for a while, but Liu Qingyan grabbed her arm and giggled, pulling her back.
Lin Xinyuan felt a bit helpless, but reminding herself that she should get along with her new roommate, she barely suppressed her urge to flee. She wanted to hear what the girl had to say.
The girl fiddled with her phone for a moment, then tapped the screen. A synthesized female voice suddenly came from the speaker: “Xiaoyuan, you really are so cute!”
Words meant as an exclamation sounded contradictory and comical when read by the emotionless robotic voice, making Lin Xinyuan feel a surge of bashful frustration.
She really hadn’t expected to be called “cute” three times today by someone other than Qin Nanfeng… and twice by the same person.
For a moment, Lin Xinyuan didn’t know how to respond. She wasn’t even sure how she had become associated with the word “cute.”
It was one thing for that “stinking blonde” to say it… but why was the roommate she just met being so forward? She was still wearing a mask—how could anyone reach that conclusion without seeing her face?
But just as Lin Xinyuan’s thoughts were wandering, Liu Qingyan seemed to hear her inner monologue and tapped away on her phone again.
“Xiaoyuan, can you take off your mask? I want to see just how cute ‘Cute Xiaoyuan’ really is!”
“Ah…” Lin Xinyuan was instantly mortified, her face beginning to burn.
Is there no end to this!
Let her restate: She. Was. Not. Cute! To her, the adjective “cute” wasn’t cute at all.
However, despite thinking this, she didn’t dare say it out loud. After all, she figured that most normal girls probably liked being called cute. If she protested… wouldn’t she seem a bit strange or eccentric?
With this thought, Lin Xinyuan hesitated but eventually took off her mask. After all, it would be very odd to keep wearing it inside the dorm, and it was indeed a bit stuffy.
Whatever, it had to happen sooner or later…
“Wow, Xiaoyuan, were you really a boy before? You can’t tell at all!”
This time, the girl switched the voice source to a “Minion” voice, which sounded very goofy.
Liu Qingyan pulled Lin Xinyuan this way and that to look her over, staring at that clear, moving face. Then, her gaze unconsciously flickered toward the girl’s chest, her face showing surprise and a faint expression of envy.
She naturally knew about Lin Xinyuan’s situation. Aside from the rumors she’d heard last semester, she had been contacted when dorms were being arranged. They had asked her if she could accept being placed with this “special” girl.
Obviously, she had no problem with it. Besides her curiosity about Lin Xinyuan, she knew that the girl had originally been a girl—she had just suffered a bout of illness… she wasn’t that sensitive or resistant to the idea.
Besides, she herself was an “outlier”… how could she have the nerve to be prejudiced against others?
What Liu Qingyan really hadn’t expected was that the girl had managed to get a boyfriend in just a few short months. And by the look of it, she seemed completely smitten?
Such a protective little thing…
Liu Qingyan’s gossip-loving heart flared up, but she wasn’t so bold as to ask Lin Xinyuan directly. They had only just met, and from their hour of interaction, she had already grasped the girl’s personality.
She really was prone to blushing and getting nervous…
And she was exceptionally cute!
Liu Qingyan rarely used that word to describe someone her own age—this was the first time—especially since this person was so unique. This didn’t just refer to her looks, but more so to the girl’s temperament.
Of course, regarding Lin Xinyuan’s appearance, even Liu Qingyan had to admit that in terms of the delicateness of her features, she was indeed better looking than herself…
It was hard to imagine… that someone who had been a boy for eighteen years could be “more of a girl” than a real girl!
Lin Xinyuan wasn’t surprised that Liu Qingyan knew her situation; the school must have explained things during the housing assignment.
Even so, hearing the girl say those words made her go dazed, her speech becoming incoherent: “Uh… this…”
Her face was burning hot. After a long pause, she finally managed: “I don’t know either…”
Lin Xinyuan truly didn’t know. Did she really not have a single trace of her former male self left after becoming a girl? How was that possible?
At this thought, she felt uncertain, and a strange sense of defeat rose in her heart. It was the unspeakable feeling of having her memories as a boy denied…
Was she really so unsuited to being a boy that the change was this thorough?
N-No way! She wasn’t gay before!
Ugh… impossible!
Seeing Lin Xinyuan’s flushed little face, Liu Qingyan’s eyes lit up.
Wow… even her shy face is so cute…
Her hand almost moved uncontrollably to pinch that fair, tender face with its hint of baby fat, but she managed to restrain herself. However, seeing the girl’s seemingly lonely expression, Liu Qingyan felt she might have said something wrong and immediately switched back to the normal synthesized female voice.
“I’m sorry!”
Wait? Why does this synthesized voice always sound so excited when it’s apologizing?
Liu Qingyan was speechless. She silently turned off her phone, feeling a bit awkward. Even Lin Xinyuan was dazed by the sudden noise.
After a moment, once Lin Xinyuan processed it, she couldn’t help but let out a soft giggle.
Laughter is infectious. Liu Qingyan had been barely holding it in, but as someone with a very low threshold for humor, hearing the girl’s sweet, soft laughter made her unable to keep a straight face.
Her pretty face began to crack, but she still desperately restrained herself, not wanting anyone to hear that “unpleasant” voice…
It took a while for her to recover. Perhaps because of what just happened, the two didn’t feel as awkward as they had at the start. Their expressions as they looked at each other carried a hint of familiarity.
The girl moved her chair over to sit close to Lin Xinyuan. Although Lin Xinyuan wasn’t quite used to it, she didn’t reject the gesture. After all, she could tell that this girl with a speech impairment was very friendly…
As long as she doesn’t try to steal Brother Feng… everything is fine.
The image of that “stinking blonde” flashed through Lin Xinyuan’s mind, along with the memory of every breath they shared while together. Her face reddened.
[Hey, Xiaoyuan, speaking of which, the other person hasn’t arrived yet.]
Liu Qingyan leaned in with her phone and typed in the notepad. Direct typing was clearly faster for Lin Xinyuan than the text-to-speech.
The scent of the girl drifted to her nose. Turning her head, Lin Xinyuan could see the girl’s delicate collarbones. However, after one glance, she retracted her gaze without a ripple of emotion.
Hmm… not as big as mine…
She thought to herself, feeling a bit of involuntary happiness. But then she realized what she was doing and wanted to cover her face right then and there.
Lin Xinyuan didn’t know why… she clearly wanted to be an ordinary girl now, but sometimes she unconsciously judged things using her “male brain”…
Ugh…
It was truly contradictory. But she couldn’t change it, nor did she really want to. Those were eighteen years of her life; how could she just forget them? Even if, physiologically speaking, she was now a genuine girl…
As she was thinking about these random things, she registered Liu Qingyan’s words. She blinked, only now remembering: “Eh? Is that so…”
Right… she had almost forgotten there was one more person…
But because of Liu Qingyan, she wasn’t as nervous about the other roommate as she had been. And at that moment, she couldn’t help but think of Li Tang.
Li Tang and the others were supposed to come to school with her, but due to an accident, they couldn’t get tickets for the same day and had to delay until tomorrow.
Most likely, her other roommate was in a similar situation as her friend?
Anyway, the formal start of school wasn’t until the day after tomorrow. There was plenty of time, so there was no rush…