(1)
“Image, watch your image—hey, Awei, what are you doing?”
“Holy crap, Jing Jing, I just realized, you don’t have a single leg hair?”
“Talk is fine, but don’t go touching!”
“No, I just want to look, okay? Sheesh, if I look any longer, I’ll get pinkeye.”
“Doubting your sexuality now, huh?” Zhou Zhao crossed her arms and squinted at him, subtly shielding An Jing behind her.
“What if I told you I’m actually a guy too?”
“Zhou Zhao, we’re all tired of that joke.”
“Yeah, that chest definitely doesn’t look fake.” Fang Qiang teased with a hint of a smile.
Zhou Zhao chuckled, leaned down, and whispered into An Jing’s ear: “Hey, you, why’d you decide to do something like this all of a sudden? Did you really awaken something?”
“Awaken my ass!” An Jing shouted in exasperation. “It’s because I forgot to bring clothes, okay? So I had no choice, get it?”
“If you forgot clothes, why didn’t you borrow from us guys?” Sun Wei immediately retorted.
“Exactly.”
“Idiots, the shortest of you is ten centimeters taller than me. Whose clothes could I wear? Nothing would fit, right?”
“A little loose wouldn’t hurt.”
“Right, right. I think An Jing actually wanted to wear it.”
“Damn!”
“Hmm~ Well, mainly I just didn’t think of it at the time.” Zhu Ying held back a laugh, lifted her face, and glanced to the side.
“Wearing your girlfriend’s clothes—impressive.”
“Feels kind of nice, actually. How come?”
“Because you don’t have a girlfriend, kid?”
“Tch, who the hell said that? I’ve got… uh…” Sun Wei suddenly looked a bit guilty toward Zhou Zhao, shrinking his neck. “Never mind, that’s nothing to brag about.”
Wang Xinru, standing behind them, hesitated several times but ultimately didn’t say the words, ‘Actually, that dress is mine.’
More classmates crowded around. The boys pushed to the front, thinking that since they were all guys, a little touch wouldn’t matter.
The girls squeezed in among them, thinking that since they were girls, touching a boy was fine—after all, girls had the privilege of “offending” the opposite sex.
“Whoa, don’t touch randomly!”
“Are we bros or not? A little touch won’t lose you any skin.”
“Right, right!”
“No touching!” Zhu Ying glared fiercely until the boy’s hand retreated. “Xiao Jing is mine. No random touching—boys or girls!”
“Wait, who the hell lifted my skirt?!”
“Damn, a flash of white?!”
“Pink polka dots, I think.”
“Mostly white!”
“Hey you guys—even perverts have their limits, right?” Zhou Zhao frowned deeply.
“Who lifted it! Step forward!” Little Zhu Ying was genuinely angry. She craned her neck like an angry goose, scanning everyone near An Jing. “Even if Xiao Jing is a boy, you can’t do something that excessive!”
“Awei, was it you? I know you’re usually a creep, but if you did something like that, it’s really not right.” Fang Qiang nodded slightly.
“I swear, I’m standing right next to you, okay?” Sun Wei tried reaching out. “You pulled me over just now. There’s no way I could have touched that easily, right?”
“It was me.” Zhang Qiqi stuck out her tongue, acting surprised by the fierce reaction, trying to gloss it over with an unusually cute tone.
“Qi—Qi—!” Zhu Ying stomped angrily. “What did you do!”
“I-I also touched An Jing’s thigh… because… it was so white and hairless, I couldn’t resist…” Yuan Lanque hurriedly apologized. “S-sorry!”
“Sorry, little An Jing.” Zhang Qiqi also put her hands together in apology.
An Jing helplessly covered her forehead: “You guys, do you have to make such a big deal? Like I’m some rare animal… seriously…”
“Looking is fine, just a fond memory of this summer outing.” Zhou Zhao smiled faintly. “Everyone, don’t do anything too extreme. That’ll only make An Jing more uncomfortable—she did wear it out of necessity.”
“R-right!” An Jing nodded vigorously, shooting Zhou Zhao a grateful and admiring look.
“Can we take pictures?”
“Bai Pang, you brought a camera?”
“Yeah, an old film camera. My dad wouldn’t let me bring a digital one—afraid I’d break it.”
“Go ahead…” An Jing nodded to Zhou Zhao, who was asking with her eyes. “Better than being treated like a rare animal…”
“You can take pictures, but no making copies and spreading them around.”
“I don’t care if you spread them anyway. It’s already like this…” An Jing slumped her arms. “My innocent junior high life… completely ruined…”
“I promise I’ll only print one!”
“Mm…” An Jing nodded casually. She actually trusted Bai Pang’s character, much more than that big-mouthed Hei Pangzi.
And then, with a click.
An Jing, wearing a white dress, gently biting her lip, was frozen in that moment.
Of course, Zhu Ying, who was snickering beside her, was also captured in the frame.
—
(2)
At dinner, An Jing barely tasted anything.
Everyone was really interested in a boy wearing women’s clothes, and they kept discussing it during the meal.
If it were a boy who didn’t look like a girl even in a dress, they probably would have just laughed a bit. But the key was that An Jing looked good in it—she looked completely like a girl. Well, duh, since her body was now actually a girl.
So the discussion was heated. Some even argued about whether they would want to date someone who looked like a girl but was actually a boy.
This topic wasn’t just for the boys; the girls were discussing it too.
“Damn, I definitely won’t be interested in boys.”
“Exactly. No matter how pretty, still a guy. The thought of hugging and there’s that thing… I can’t even eat!”
“Yeah.”
“Uh… y-yeah…”
Compared to the somewhat insincere chatter among the boys, the girls were much more accepting:
“Still a boy no matter what.”
“Yeah, and you can dress him up all pretty, like a doll.”
“Right, right! You can not only go out in guy clothes, but also dress as sisters and go out together. That’s super fun!”
“Now I kind of get why Zhu Ying hangs out with An Jing.”
“He has masculine charm, is easy on the eyes, has a good personality, and is perfect for teasing!”
“But if there’s danger, he can’t protect you.”
“True, not very strong… but these are peaceful times. Security is getting better, so there won’t be any danger.”
“Exactly. If it were about strength, wouldn’t everyone have to choose Fang Qiang?”
“But honestly, who likes that big dumb guy?”
“Right~ A boy like this is better. I want to find one like this in the future.”
“Then I’ll recommend one: Yang Lingfei from the other class. He’s not as pretty as An Jing, but with makeup, he should be pretty cute.”
“Him~ I feel like his personality is a bit hard to deal with, right?”
“Really? He seems polite.”
“But he’s stubborn.”
“How can you tell?”
“Hmm—intuition?”
The topic drifted further and further away, and the attention on An Jing gradually faded.
She breathed a slight sigh of relief and swallowed the last bite of rice. “Phew… can we go back to our room now?”
“Teacher Wen, are there any activities tonight?”
“Of course.” Ye Wen smiled meaningfully. “It’s story time. We’ll set up a campfire on the open ground later. We’ll sit around it and play drop the handkerchief. Whoever gets the handkerchief dropped on them has to tell a story.”
“Huh? What kind of stories? Ghost stories?”
“Any kind. Fairy tales, or stories about yourself. Of course, the person who successfully drops the handkerchief can also choose not to have someone tell a story, but to bring up a topic—like who in the class likes whom.”
“That sounds pretty interesting.”
“…” An Jing twitched the corner of her mouth, on the verge of tears. ‘I want to go back to my room…’
“Xiao Jing, you’re not allowed to run away, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll sit right next to you, and Xiao Ru will sit on your other side. That way, you’ll be protected.”
“Who’s the guy here, anyway…?”
Zhu Ying snickered and lowered her voice: “It’s definitely not Xiao Jing.”
“Hey!”
(3)
The plates on the table had all been cleared. The classmates filed out of the hall and onto the open ground outside the lumberyard.
The sunset was almost completely gone, but a few orange-red clouds still lingered on the horizon.
On the other side, the sky had already been dyed a deep blue by night. A few bright stars surrounded the moon, silently watching the people in the clearing.
The noisy sounds of the forest gradually quieted down. If you listened closely, you could already hear the rustling of the waves.
Qiu Yi made a large campfire from discarded oil drums. The students brought chairs and sat around it.
Ye Wen was explaining the rules and then demonstrated for everyone.
“So that’s how it is. Everyone knows how to play drop the handkerchief, right? Anyone still confused? Raise your hand~!” Ye Wen looked around at the twenty-plus students. “Mm, good. Looks like everyone understood. We’ll play like that in a bit. Now, let me see—any volunteers to be the first to drop the handkerchief? By the way, if you fail to drop it three times in a row, you lose and have to tell a story.”
The students whispered among themselves. No one seemed to want to be the first test subject.
“Teacher, I’ll go.” The sports representative, Fang Qiang, raised his hand as an example.
“Alright, Fang Qiang, you’re up. Everyone else, clap and sing along. Ready—one, two, three, go!”
“Drop the handkerchief, drop the handkerchief—”
The students sang sporadically at first, then gradually got into rhythm. Fang Qiang, who was walking around the outside, started to jog.
“Gently place it behind a friend, don’t let them know—”
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