Thanks to the rapid growth spurt in her three years of middle school, An Jing had many clothes that no longer fit him.
At a time like this, they came in handy.
Many of the clothes had only been worn a few times before they became too small.
Now, finding them in the closet, they still didn’t feel old.
She secretly rejoiced, grateful that everyone still considered her a boy.
Otherwise, she might have to wear girl’s clothes right now, and even if she didn’t have to wear those chilly skirts, she’d have to wear a little camisole underneath, with straps that would fall off with a single tug…
Don’t ask An Jing how she knew.
Of course, it was from her… ah, no, of course she saw other friends do that!
Perhaps considering that boys grow quickly in middle school, there weren’t many clothes from first grade.
Besides a few sets of school uniforms, there were only a few pieces of plain casual wear left.
An Jing didn’t mind what clothes she wore, as long as they were comfortable.
Whether they looked good or not was secondary.
“Zhu Ying seems to really like black. Her Qzone and avatar are both black-themed, and the font is black too…”
An Jing clapped her head, and an idea immediately struck her.
“I’ll just wear all black today!”
Black T-shirt, black jacket, black casual pants…
Of course, these weren’t pure black.
For example, the T-shirt had red patterns, and the jacket and casual pants had some fluorescent green lines.
After putting on her clothes, An Jing, for once, went to the bathroom mirror to admire her “handsome” look for the day.
The person in the mirror indeed looked cool.
Her short hair, just touching her ears, was slightly messy, but this gave her a spirited air.
A… short, handsome girl.
Anyway, there was no way to associate her with a boy.
An Jing forcefully patted her fair cheeks, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
When she opened them again, her gaze instantly became sharp.
“The person in the mirror is a boy, the person in the mirror is a boy, the person in the mirror is a boy…”
She chanted, hypnotizing herself, and finally saw a hint of dashing boyishness in the reflection.
“Hmm! This will do. And then, I’ll lower my voice a bit when I speak… cough… Mm-hmm… Mm… This should make it more neutral.”
She tried to adapt to her new voice, feeling fully prepared.
—Even if not fully prepared, there was nothing she could do; her physical condition was right there.
Perhaps she should buy some height-increasing shoes, but she didn’t know where to find them.
“What are you looking at in the mirror?”
Yu Mingfei leaned lazily against the bathroom doorway, looking at An Jing, who looked adorable no matter what expression she made, and couldn’t help but chuckle, “Are there girls with you today?
“Cough!”
Caught off guard, she immediately felt a bit awkward.
“How did you know…?”
“Tch, going specifically to the mirror to doll yourself up, even an idiot would know! You don’t usually do that…”
Yu Mingfei yawned widely.
“I really don’t know how you grew up. You’re so big but still like a child, no masculinity at all, and no Adam’s apple to be seen—if you really want to look handsome, why don’t you just get a buzz cut?”
“Ah…”
An Jing had actually considered this option just now but was still hesitant about whether to do it.
What if a buzz cut made her less handsome than she was now?
After all, buzz cuts weren’t really in style anymore these days.
“But, keeping it like this is good too, you look so cute.”
Yu Mingfei suddenly patted An Jing’s shoulder with a mischievous grin.
“Like this, won’t girls not like you, but instead a bunch of boys will like you?”
“I’ll punch you in the lung!”
An Jing unhesitatingly gave her a middle finger.
“We’re just brothers, don’t say such disgusting things, okay?!”
“Tsk-tsk, you never know… you never know…”
Yu Mingfei’s sarcastic tone gave An Jing goosebumps.
She quickly darted out of the bathroom, leaving it to her second sister, “I’m leaving!”
“Tsk, a little brat with no romance…”
Yu Mingfei pouted, muttering softly as she watched the forcefully closed door.
“But it’s still better not to let him get exposed to that kind of knowledge, otherwise Auntie will have to ask me… how her perfectly fine son turned out like that…”
***
(2)
Although it was the beginning of winter, the temperature hadn’t dropped sharply.
The sun beating down still felt scorching, as if summer had returned, so much so that Zhu Ying, wearing only a thin jacket, began to sweat all over after just a few steps.
She opened her phone and checked her monthly weather MMS, which showed that today’s maximum temperature was already close to thirty degrees Celsius.
“Phew, did I wear too much today?”
She gently shook her flip phone, adorned with small trinkets and stickers, listening to the crisp ‘clatter’ sound, and then opened the JAVA version of Mobile QQ.
On the screen, a penguin held up an orange-yellow phone with an antenna, and below it, in large font, it displayed “Mobile QQ2008.”
After waiting for three or four seconds, it arrived at a very simple login interface.
The account and password were already saved; all she had to do was click the corresponding login button.
“Connecting to server…”
“Loading friend list…”
“Getting friends’ online status…”
“Login successful.”
As the last line of small text popped up, the simple, even somewhat crude, main chat interface appeared.
Zhu Ying found the friend noted as ‘Xiao Jingjing’ and sent him a message by pressing the phone’s keypad, which gave a slight rebound.
(I’m almost there. Where are you guys?)
After sending the message, she snapped the flip phone shut and stood on a nearby flower bed, looking into the distance.
The wind blowing towards her carried a hint of the unique heat of youth.
A familiar yet slightly unfamiliar figure soon came into her view.
It was a short-haired girl, her lips gently pursed, her eyes fixed only on the path ahead.
Her hands were in her pockets, walking briskly, as if searching for a quiet corner—like a shy cat suddenly thrown into a lively crowd.
Zhu Ying, of course, recognized her.
But instead of shouting her name from afar, she waited with interest—to see when she would notice her, standing not far away.
***
(3)
An Jing strode along the road, hands in her pockets, pondering what kind of greeting would be most appropriate when she met Zhu Ying.
Should she be enthusiastic?
Or more casual?
But in any case, she had to maintain this cool and handsome expression until she reached her.
Even if she had turned into a girl, she still had to let Zhu Ying feel her handsome charm!
It wasn’t that she really wanted to pursue her…
Okay, An Jing had to admit that she certainly wanted to try pursuing her.
It was just that the probability of that happening was too low.
And since she had already shown that she wanted to set up Fang Qiang with her, she naturally couldn’t go back on her word.
To be a man, one must keep one’s promises.
So, her behavior was just to get the other person to acknowledge her.
At least she had to think she was handsome, right?
“Am I handsome enough like this?”
An Jing couldn’t help but wonder.
Seeing a black car parked by the roadside ahead, she hurried forward and adjusted her hair in the reflective glass.
“No, this looks too well-behaved. It needs to be messier, that’s right, messier… Yes, this looks handsome. Hmph, of course, what’s more important is the inner self. A man’s handsomeness comes from his temperament!”
After she had fixed her hairstyle and walked a few more steps, she finally spotted the campus belle standing high above the crowd.
She stood gracefully, more delicate than the flowers in the flowerbed.
An Jing walked forward with her cool face, lightly brushed her hair with her hand, and then revealed a smile that she felt was neither too enthusiastic nor too distant, “Zhu Ying, you’re here so early.”
“Yes, I sent you a message.”
“Oh, I didn’t see it.”
“Where are the others?”
An Jing shifted her gaze from Zhu Ying’s face and lightly kicked a small pebble by the roadside, “They should be here soon, right? These bastards are always late when we go out on weekends.”
“Wow!”
“Hmph!”
“Aaahh!!!”
“Yo!!”
Just then, several strange shouts suddenly came from behind An Jing and Zhu Ying.
Zhu Ying wasn’t startled, but An Jing shivered all over, narrowly avoiding crying out.
—Otherwise, she would have been laughed at by her best friends.
She cursed loudly, covering up the fact that she had just been startled, “Damn it, what the hell are you guys doing! You want to scare Zhu Ying but you didn’t call me! That’s not brotherly enough!”
Zhu Ying suddenly let out a giggle, covering her mouth as she laughed, and the other boys also deliberately looked at her with strange eyes.
“Good brother, it’s okay to be scared. You can just pretend to be a girl anyway.”
Fang Qiang said earnestly, placing his large hand on her shoulder.
“You bastard!”
An Jing raised a middle finger.
“It’s fine, it’s just a little shiver from being scared, it’s human nature!”
Sun Wei said mischievously.
“I swear!”
An Jing raised another middle finger.
“Zhu Ying doesn’t seem scared…”
Zhou Chao, on the other hand, looked regretful.
This guy still had some ‘humanity’ and didn’t continue to ‘kick her when she was down’ at this moment.
But somehow, his words still sounded strange.
“I originally wanted to stop them, but they had already jumped out, so I could only quickly shout to warn you.”
Another fair-faced boy, about half a head taller than An Jing, said with a troubled expression.
This was Yang Lingfei, the school’s famous handsome boy.
Although both were considered school heartthrobs, unlike Zhou Chao’s handsomeness, he leaned more towards beauty.
His overall demeanor was like a pure white lamb.
He and An Jing were in the same class before the class divisions, but he went to Class 1 after the divisions in third year of junior high.
He wasn’t a close friend they could tease, but he was a good friend nonetheless.
“Yang Lingfei really knows how to talk pretty.”
Fang Qiang shook his head and clicked his tongue.
An Jing looked up at him, wishing she could raise the middle fingers of both her feet and stick them in his face.
Speaking of which, was this big oaf always this tall?
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