(1)
The rhythmic sound of rain outside, and the warmth inside the classroom with all windows closed.
Wang Xinru, sitting behind An Jing, was softly reciting English words.
To An Jing, it sounded like the chanting of monks in a temple, giving her a sense of peace.
She didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, only that she had vaguely slumped onto the desk.
She had just been thinking of taking out her homework before that…
She could feel she was dreaming, and in her dream, she was still in the classroom.
The classroom was empty, but in a few spots, there was a hazy, cloud-like object shimmering with starlight.
Curiously, she walked forward and gently reached out to touch it.
Suddenly, she felt herself being sucked in.
Then came a dizzying spin, and when she regained her senses, she appeared in a new, unfamiliar world.
It was a somewhat familiar alley.
Outside, the cries of junk collectors could be heard.
A familiar figure stood beneath a low-rise building, looking in the direction where the setting sun was falling.
“That person is… um… Zhou Chao?”
An Jing was about to go forward and call him when she saw him suddenly shout excitedly, “I’ll support you!”
Standing at the alley entrance was his childhood sweetheart, his very first girlfriend.
She looked much more mature than she had in junior high and was noticeably taller than before.
Faced with Zhou Chao’s shout, she first froze, then showed a playful yet helpless smile.
She didn’t answer, but just turned and hailed a taxi.
Zhou Chao stared blankly as she got into the car and drove away, as if he had lost all strength, sliding down the wall to the ground.
“Zhou Chao!”
Although she didn’t understand the situation, An Jing quickly rushed up to help him.
“What are you doing?”
“You… who are you?”
He looked at An Jing with a bewildered expression.
“Ah…? You don’t recognize me? I’m An Jing.”
“How could that be… An Jing couldn’t possibly look like that…”
Tears streamed down his face, but he laughed aloud.
“Although he’s only 1.7 meters tall and looks plain, at least he’s a boy.”
An Jing felt her head suddenly explode.
Had the passive ability to change others’ perception of her failed?!
If that were true, her life would be over!
“English morning reading starts today. Students, please take out your English books and turn to the vocabulary list at the back…”
A calm voice seemed to come from beyond the world, and then a powerful suction instantly attacked her from behind…
“Phew!!” She suddenly opened her eyes, her cheeks drenched in sweat, her heart pounding wildly, even causing a faint pain.
Zhu Ying looked at An Jing, who was breathing heavily and looked as if she had just been pulled out of water, with a puzzled expression:
“Had a nightmare?”
“Sort of…”
She pounded her chest forcefully, finally regaining her composure.
Turning her head to look at the back of the classroom, she found Zhou Chao also groggily waking from his sleep.
Was it a coincidence… or a superpower?
But either way, she definitely didn’t want the day her identity was exposed to come.
An Jing patted her dizzy head and groggily pulled all her homework out of her backpack and placed it on the table.
Most of the students were already in the classroom now.
Although the class representative had already started the morning reading, many were still frantically copying homework, and some were still sleeping at their desks.
Very few were actually following along with the morning reading.
“…ABAJ?”
Zhu Ying blinked, pointing to the math test paper on her desk, “Your homework… did you do it?”
“Definitely all…!”
She was about to answer without thinking, but then she saw the completely blank math test paper.
“Holy crap! I spent Saturday celebrating my birthday and Sunday playing games, I forgot I still had a bit left to do!”
“Oh~ The top five student in class actually didn’t do her math homework~”
Zhang Qiqi, sitting behind her, gloated, drawing out her words.
“Do you want Big Sis to let you copy?”
An Jing’s eyelids drooped. If she had a choice, she would absolutely refuse Zhang Qiqi’s charity.
That girl was too nasty; she’d probably use this against her later.
“You can borrow mine,” Zhu Ying handed her her own copy.
“Though the accuracy definitely isn’t as high as yours.”
“It’s fine, as long as I can finish it…”
An Jing breathed a sigh of relief.
While keeping an eye out for the homeroom teacher who might walk in at any moment, she wrote furiously.
Zhu Ying’s handwriting had a rounded quality, as lovely as her own slightly chubby, baby-faced features.
An Jing, who hadn’t copied homework in a long time, unusually felt a sense of urgency today.
The last time she was afraid she wouldn’t finish copying her homework in time seemed to be back in elementary school…
***
(3)
Since it was raining outside, there was naturally no need for morning exercises, and the first class, quite logically, started early.
It was also a good thing that class started early, which meant the math teacher didn’t extend the class today, allowing the students a full ten-minute break.
A boy called Zhou Chao’s name and made a smoking gesture with his hand.
Zhou Chao immediately understood, shoved something into his pants pocket, and walked out with the guy, arm-in-arm.
Although it was only the third year of junior high, there were already many boys who smoked.
This even included some students with decent grades.
For adults, smoking was a common minor habit, but for junior high students, smoking was a very serious matter.
If caught, the starting punishment was a warning.
But the more serious it was, the more some people wanted to smoke.
So much so that the boys’ restroom stalls became a sacred place for smoking.
They would only stop for a few days when they occasionally got caught, but after a while, they would slowly start becoming rampant again.
“An Jing, wanna go to the restroom?”
Fang Qiang, this rough-looking big guy, really liked asking people to go to the restroom with him.
In her memory, it seemed he rarely went alone.
“My foot isn’t very convenient for walking.”
“What’s wrong? Your foot too…”
“It’s nothing, just sprained it this morning, it should be much better now, though…”
An Jing slowly stood up, leaning on her desk.
Her left foot seemed fine, but her right foot still hurt.
She limped to the doorway, painfully stretching out her arm to rest it on Fang Qiang’s shoulder, “Damn it, help me a bit.”
“That serious? Want to go to the infirmary to get it checked?”
“No, no… just now… uh… um… anyway, I’ve already put safflower oil on it.”
“No wonder you smell spicy. I thought you ate too much ginger this morning.”
“Who the hell eats that much ginger first thing in the morning?!”
An Jing rolled her eyes and limped out of the classroom with Fang Qiang.
“How’s your dad?”
“Not in life danger, but he needs a period of rest. At least a month before he can be discharged.”
Fang Qiang shook his head and sighed.
“Sigh… it’s going to cost a lot of savings again.”
“Can he move normally after he gets better?”
“The doctor said if he recovers well, he’ll be like before. If the recovery is poor, he might not be able to run or anything.”
***
An Jing scratched her head, and it wasn’t until she was about to enter the restroom that she managed to squeeze out a comforting remark, “It’s okay… everything will get better.”
“I hope so…”
Fang Qiang was feeling a bit down today and didn’t joke around as usual.
He took a deep breath, forcing a smile.
“Sigh, the restroom, the restroom. Say, you’re not going to need my help holding you up in there, are you?”
“Damn it, I’m perfectly fine just standing!”
An Jing forcefully raised her middle finger.
She naturally followed Fang Qiang into the boys’ restroom, even feeling a bit strange about why the other boys were looking at her with such astonished gazes.
“Holy crap, why is there a girl here?”
Someone exclaimed in surprise.
The boys standing at the urinals all turned their heads in unison, their gazes fixed on her.
Quite a few of them shuddered, immediately feeling a warmth in their hands…
“What’s the big deal? Isn’t that Class Five’s An Jing?”
“Class Five’s An Jing looks like that?”
“Yeah, haven’t you seen him? Looks like a girl, but don’t underestimate him! Pull it out and you’ll be scared to death!”
“Holy crap, really?”
“Extra large, okay!”
At this, the expressions on the boys’ faces instantly changed from surprise to curiosity.
If it were before, An Jing would, of course, have no shame in taking it out to “shock” them.
However, now…
She was a girl!
An Jing suddenly realized the gravity of the situation.
Now that she had become a girl, even going to the restroom could be fraught with danger.
Middle school students were especially rowdy; the doors to the stalls were almost always broken.
To use a stall or smoke, one had to hold the doorknob with one hand, or it would easily be opened by someone else.
However, a boy could manage with one hand, but it wasn’t so convenient for a girl.
Furthermore, if these guys really got perverted, it would be terrifying.
Not only would a group come to pull the door, some might even lie on the door panel and peek inside.
Going to the restroom during the busiest time was absolutely an extremely unsafe thing to do.
An Jing panicked, turning around to leave without warning.
“Damn it, not letting us see?”
“An Jing, don’t leave! Let them see what a ‘giant dragon’ looks like!”
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“I’m not lying, it’s really big!”
Some even came forward, trying to block her.
Boys always liked to crack these slightly perverted jokes…
“What is wrong with all of you?!”
Suddenly, an authoritative voice rang out from outside the boys’ restroom.
The teacher they had seen that morning glared at the jeering boys.
“What’s going on? Bringing a girl into the boys’ restroom and not letting her leave?!”
“Teacher, no, he…”
The boys immediately started to nervously explain.
And so, at the particularly lively restroom entrance during the first break, everyone saw a petite, short-haired girl run out looking flustered.
Her limping, scurrying figure was as endearing as a wounded fawn.
Just as the delicate girl with two tear moles was about to escape into the classroom, she suddenly stumbled, colliding head-on with another girl who was about to come out of the classroom.
And at this moment, a flustered An Jing felt as if her forehead had hit a rock…
So hard!
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That was close… though now she may have a new problem in her hands.