In the early morning, sitting at the dining table, Ji Yuenian frowned as she looked at the orange papaya soup in front of her, muttering in dissatisfaction.
“It replenishes blood and calcium, why wouldn’t you want to eat it? Didn’t you use to eat this every day, saying it would help you grow taller?” Huang Qingchuan asked while peeling an eggshell, not forgetting to push a dish of pickles toward Ji Yuenian to show her care for her precious daughter.
Ji Yuenian glanced at the papaya soup, then lowered her eyes to look at her extremely full chest, a sudden sense of gloom welling up in her heart.
“But I just don’t want to eat it right now.”
“Fine, fine, if you don’t want it, you don’t have to. Little Yueyue, what do you want to eat? Mommy will go make it for you right now.”
Huang Qingchuan noticed that Ji Yuenian’s mood seemed very low at the moment, so she hurriedly put down the egg in her hand and took her hand, speaking softly to comfort her.
“Forget it, I won’t trouble you, Mom. I’ll just eat it.”
Saying this, Ji Yuenian took the papaya soup and drank it in large gulps, as if to vent the depression in her heart.
“Our Yueyue is so good.” Huang Qingchuan couldn’t help but laugh seeing her like this.
“By the way, Mom, I want to go out and play in a bit.”
“Where to? Does Yueyue want to go shopping with Mommy? It’s the perfect time to buy some clothes for Yueyue. What kind of styles do you like? Mommy knows a boutique, we as mother and daughter…”
“Mom.” Ji Yuenian interrupted her. For some reason, the words “mother and daughter” sounded particularly piercing to her ears. She looked at Huang Qingchuan and said word by word, “I want to go out alone for a bit. Alone.”
Hearing this, Huang Qingchuan froze for a few seconds. Noting the determined look in Ji Yuenian’s eyes, her words of dissuasion turned into other questions: “Where are you going?”, “Is anyone going with you?”, “What time do you plan to come back?”, “What kind of clothes are you going to wear?” A string of questions was thrown her way.
Ji Yuenian remained silent.
“Why do you have to say so much? You never used to ask this much before.”
“Before was before, now is now. Of course it’s different,” Huang Qingchuan explained patiently.
“Is before different from now?” Ji Yuenian murmured in a low voice, her tone laced with a hint of bitterness.
***
Not a Little Fox (Hu Li): “Where is Brother Ji? It’s been almost a week, and he still hasn’t come to school?”
Famous Voice (Yao Shiming): “Don’t know. I asked Su Tian, and he doesn’t have any news either.”
Yikang the Promising (Luo Yikang): “I say, can’t we just @ the person? @Bright Moon Until the End, Old Ji, where are you? If you don’t come back to school soon, your position as center on the basketball team is going to be replaced!!”
Yao Yao Returning (Liu Yao): “Everyone, don’t worry. Nothing should have happened.”
“Is the center position going to be replaced?”
Inside the bedroom, looking at the overwhelming @ messages in the dormitory group chat and noticing the news about the “center being replaced,” Ji Yuenian’s beautiful face darkened slightly. Finally, she gave a few dry laughs and talked to herself.
“It’s better this way, better this way. Anyway, with how I look like a ghost now, I can’t play basketball anymore.”
“I might as well just disappear. Might as well just disappear.”
Ji Yuenian bit her lip.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but her heart was just extremely uncomfortable, as if a giant stone was pressing down on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
First, there was Jiang Chi’s sentence, “Ji Yuenian, be a girl,” and then there was the change in her mother Huang Qingchuan’s care and attitude in daily life, which was vastly different and completely distinct from before.
Ji Yuenian knew she was being willful now, and a twisted little emotion was growing in her heart.
Clearly, her family cared about her, and clearly, the answer Jiang Chi gave was indeed the current optimal solution. “Be a girl,” “be a girl”—even she knew that whether she was willing to accept it or not, from now on, she could only live as a female.
But she just couldn’t get over that hurdle in her heart!
She missed her life from the first 18 years, she was loath to leave the times she spent hanging out with her subordinates, and she even more so didn’t want to betray the former male version of herself.
But what about now?
Ji Yuenian didn’t know.
She was truly lost right now.
So lost she didn’t know what to do.
She didn’t understand what she should do, and she didn’t dare to imagine what kind of future she had.
Just like how she knew Jiang Chi might have a screw loose and wanted to pursue her—when faced with the other’s confessions and hints, she just played tai chi and stalled for time.
As long as I cover my ears, I won’t hear the voices outside. No matter how many things happen in the outside world, they have nothing to do with me.
Plugging one’s ears to steal a bell, self-deception, an ostrich in the desert.
The kind of person the former upright and pioneering Ji Yuenian despised the most.
Cowardly, indecisive, overcautious.
She had ultimately become the kind of person she hated the most.
“No!”
Ji Yuenian shook her head violently. Her originally dull eyes instantly burst with a dazzling light, sweeping away the previous gloom.
“I am Ji Yuenian, the forever sunny and cheerful Ji Yuenian. How can I be defeated by this little setback? What does a mere gender swap matter!”
“I need to pull myself together, I need to rise, I need to cheer myself up!!”
As she spoke, she pulled the corner of the quilt and buried her face in it, remaining motionless. After a while, she lifted her head from the blanket and looked at the ceiling again, her eyes becoming determined.
Bright Moon Until the End: “@Everyone, thanks for everyone’s concern this week. I’m fine, just ran into some annoying stuff and stayed home for a few days.”
“Is everyone free this Friday night? I’ll host and treat everyone to BBQ, at the old place!”
“Holy crap! Brother Ji, you’re alive!”
“Free BBQ? Old Ji is generous!!”
“I’ll definitely be there!”
One word stirred up a thousand waves. Ji Yuenian’s sudden “resurrection” immediately triggered a heated discussion in the group.
As her gaze swept over the red dots of private concern messages in the QQ directory, a slight smile appeared at the corners of Ji Yuenian’s mouth, and her beautiful eyes sparkled.
She, Ji Yuenian, would always be Ji Yuenian!
That sunny, cheerful, and lively Ji Yuenian!!
*****
“Dad, your SF Express package is here. I brought it for you.”
In the top-floor office of Hongyuan Group, Ji Haotong patted the package in his hand and handed it to Ji Hong.
Ji Hong put down the documents in his hand and reached out to take the package.
Then, he picked up a paper cutter from the desk and cut open the package along the dotted tape. The moment the box was opened, brand-new books with their plastic covers still intact lay quietly inside.
Ji Haotong leaned over curiously, his gaze falling on those books: “Girls Should Not Feel Inferior,” “Advantages of Females Over Males,” “Gender Education: It’s Pretty Good to Be a Girl.” His mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
“Dad, why did you buy these books?”
“They’re for Yuenian to read.” Ji Hong’s fingers lightly brushed the covers of the books. He looked at Ji Haotong again, seemingly thinking of something and pausing for a moment before speaking.
“I’ve decided to give you a month of long leave. During this month, properly sort out your relationship with Mengmeng Rabbit. Either confirm the result and turn the internship into a permanent position, or you reject her. I have an old friend whose daughter is about your age; I’ll introduce you two.”
Hearing this, Ji Haotong was stunned for a moment, then let out a wail: “Don’t, Dad, I still want to struggle for a few more years!!”
“You’re not young anymore, it’s time to consider starting a family,” Ji Hong said indifferently.
“By the way, in a few days, the orphanage co-funded by the Xu Charity Foundation and our group will be completed. Come by then and cut the ribbon together with the person in charge from their side.”
She’s so lucky to be surrounded by so many kind people