(1)
At noon, the blazing sun hung high overhead.
The hotter the sun got, the louder the cicadas screamed.
Yet in the bedroom with the tightly shut door, An Jing’s voice sounded even more miserable than the cicadas—
They only had the life of a single summer, so they screamed with all their might to leave their mark.
But An Jing sounded like she couldn’t even survive past this noon.
“Hisss—ah—it hurts—hurts—!! Ughhh!”
“If you’re a boy, just tough it out.”
“I’m not a boy, I’m a girl now!”
“Who was it at the beginning that kept insisting they were a boy and couldn’t just take off their clothes in front of a woman?”
“It hurts hurts hurts—I’m a girl now, I’m a girl now!!”
“I’m barely even using any force.”
“You call that not using force?! It feels like—ah—! Like scraping my bones!!”
“If I really used force, it’d feel like this, okay?”
“Ah—!!!”
“Feels good, right?”
“Good my ass!!”
“Your voice is pretty loud, seems like you’ve still got plenty of energy. Want me to press harder?”
“Hey! Ugh…..hisss…………”
“Have you been slouching when you sit lately? Your hands and feet are all cold too. I’ll give you a foot massage afterward.”
“Uuu—”
“Relax a bit. How am I supposed to massage you when you’re all tensed up like this?”
“How am I supposed to……relax?!” An Jing in the room gritted her teeth.
“Relax more.”
“Mmm……”
“Good, just like that.”
“Ah!!”
Zhu Ying, who was waiting on the sofa, couldn’t help but click her tongue: “Is it really that painful……It sounds like killing a pig…”
And when An Jing finally finished the massage and came out of the room, she looked like all her bones had been drained away. She wobbled a few steps before flopping face-first onto the sofa.
“Next~!”
“C-Can I skip it?” Zhu Ying was genuinely a little frightened.
“Then acupuncture?”
“Xiao Jing, how are you?”
“Like I got beaten up as a sandbag by ten people for hours…” An Jing rolled her eyes, not wanting to move an inch like a dead fish. “I’m dying…”
“Hurry up and come, don’t waste time!”
“C-Coming!”
(2)
“How is it?”
“A little painful?”
“I’ll press harder in a bit.”
“O-Okay………….phew…”
“Have you been staying up late lately? Your sleep schedule is a bit irregular.”
“I have been staying up a bit……nnn…mmm……”
“Painful?”
“No……that spot feels really goo—…ah! It’s tingly and numb at the same time.”
“Next up is the soles of your feet.”
“Mmm….feels warm and nice.”
“Good.”
By the time Zhu Ying was done with her massage, it was already almost five in the afternoon.
Jiang Yujing was drenched in sweat, while Zhu Ying looked completely refreshed. She stretched her body and plopped down right next to An Jing, who had just barely recovered.
“How was it? Did it hurt?”
“It didn’t hurt. Why did Xiao Jing think it was so painful?”
“Hah—? It didn’t hurt? Really?” An Jing widened her eyes in disbelief. “How could it not hurt?!”
“It seems Xiao Jing has a particularly low pain tolerance~”
“As someone who used to be a guy, not being able to handle any pain at all is totally unacceptable.” Jiang Yujing also chuckled and teased.
“Tch, who said guys have to tough out the pain?!” An Jing pouted. “And besides, after becoming a girl, I’m way more sensitive to pain than before. My skin feels really—Xiao Ying, why are you blowing into my ear?!”
“Just testing how sensitive you are?”
“You two get along so well, I’m so jealous. If only I could have a relationship like that, lasting from junior high school all the way to marriage.” Jiang Yujing shook her head and clicked her tongue. “Alright, I’m heading out. All your updated ID documents are in that file bag. Don’t lose them.”
“Ah…….okay……”
“Bye!”
Just like when she came, Jiang Yujing left just as briskly. The moment she finished speaking, she had already slammed the door shut, leaving behind only a puff of warm air tinged with the smell of sweat.
“Xiao Jing, aren’t you going to take a look?”
“L-Look at what?”
“Your new documents.”
“Uh……I’m a bit scared to look.”
“Why?”
An Jing helplessly pursed her lips: “Because it means from now on, I can only live as a girl. I have to…completely…say goodbye to the past.”
“A new beginning doesn’t mean everything from the past has to be thrown away.”
“It’s not that…anyway…anyway, it’s just that kind of feeling.” An Jing’s heart was a little messy. “Before, I actually kind of hoped for a quick new start, so I wouldn’t have to keep hiding this and that.”
“But now that it’s really about to start, you’re afraid to move forward?”
“Something like that…..that’s the kind of feeling.” An Jing took a deep breath, then picked up the bag on the coffee table. From it, she pulled out the waterproof document bag. After opening it, there was another kraft paper document bag inside.
She untwisted the string wrapped around the seal and carefully dumped everything out.
A thick stack of documents—all sorts of materials and certificates regarding gender change. As for the reasons and process for the gender change, those were naturally all fake.
But with the official government seals, even fakes became real.
Even the surgery application materials looked authentic enough that An Jing felt a little dazed, as if she had actually undergone a gender correction surgery herself.
Aside from the stack of documents printed with all sorts of content, there were two other things: one was the household registration book, and the other was the ID card.
In the household registration book, she was still registered under her grandfather’s name. Aside from the gender, everything else seemed unchanged.
As for the ID card—this was the first time she’d ever owned one of these. A small plastic card that held all her personal information.
And in everyday life, it was also the thing that could best prove her identity.
“So you can have an ID card before you’re an adult now.” Zhu Ying played with the delicate plastic card, flipping it over and over to look at it.
“Yeah……I think Fei Jie got hers when she was a high school freshman.”
“Should I get one too?”
“Mmm…I think you should?”
“This photo was taken back at the research institute, right? Xiao Jing looks a bit listless in it, huh?”
“Uh……I was thinking about something back then.” An Jing awkwardly rubbed the tip of her nose. “I do look a bit silly.”
“But it’s pretty cute though—” Zhu Ying pinched the ID card and read the information on it. “Your name didn’t change? Still An Jing. Actually, this name really does suit a girl better, doesn’t it?”
“Hey, I’ve been using this name for years, you know.”
“Then—your birth date didn’t change either.”
“No need to change it.”
“Did your ID number change?”
“It probably did, but I don’t know what my old number was.”
“Mmm…I heard that the second-to-last digit of a girl’s ID number is always an even number. Let me see, let me see—three, three, zero, eight, zero, mmm…”
“That’s a long string of numbers.”
“Eighteen digits.” Zhu Ying pointed at the second-to-last digit of the number. “It’s an even number. This is proof of Xiao Jing’s gender!”
“The gender column on the ID card already says it pretty clearly, you know.” An Jing let out a helpless sigh.
“But wait, the last digit is an X. What does that mean? It feels so special.”
“How would I know? But I’m pretty sure it just represents a number.”
“What number is X? Is it ‘0’?”
“Then why not just write ‘0’?”
“I know! It’s definitely ’10’!”
“Probably…” An Jing took her ID card back from Zhu Ying’s hand and tucked it into the file bag. “Anyway, let’s put these all away properly, so we don’t end up losing them.”
“What about your school registration? Will that be transferred over too?”
“It probably will, right?” An Jing mumbled as she put the documents back in place, letting out a soft sigh. “From now on, my identity in society…is officially a girl. Sigh.”
“Are you going to tell your good buddies about it? Fang Qiang and Sun Wei?”
“I’ll……think about it later……”
(3)
The time was already evening, but the setting sun showed no signs of going down, still brilliantly shining over the entire city.
“Fei Jie has to work overtime today.” An Jing looked at the text message she just received, leaning half against the wall covered in posters. “She said she might be back a little late, and told us to eat first if we’re hungry—Xiao Ying, are you hungry?”
“Nope, I can wait a bit longer.” Zhu Ying sat in front of the computer, clattering away at the keyboard. “Maybe she’ll be back soon anyway?”
“That’s what I was thinking—what are you doing?”
“Chatting with my dad.”
“Chatting? On QQ?”
“Yep.”
“Whoa—? Your dad actually knows how to use QQ?”
“He’s the one who registered my QQ account for me. Did you think he was some old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud?”
“He does seem like the more serious type…” An Jing felt a bit embarrassed, sat up straight, and cautiously glanced at the screen a couple of times.
Zhu Ying didn’t block the screen. Instead, she moved aside a little to let An Jing see more clearly.
“What are you two talking about?” An Jing asked casually, not knowing the context.
“He’s talking about me being home alone. He wants me to go to the capital to stay with them first, then come back later to pick up my school registration records.”
“Ah, so this really is going to be a long time.”
“Yeah, probably another month.”
“Summer vacation’s already almost half over.”
“Right, so he said it’s better for me to go over. Since I’ll be alone at home for so long, they’re worried I can’t take care of myself. I told them I’d be fine, but—that’s just how moms and dads are, you know.”
“Mmm, if they insist, then you should go. It’s a perfect excuse to treat it as a trip to the capital anyway. You can see Tiananmen, the Great Wall, and stuff. Don’t forget to take photos!”
“Xiao Jing, why don’t you come with me?”
“That might not be very convenient…I still need to go to the province capital. And besides…if your parents are there too, it’d feel a bit awkward…It’s not like the usual situation where we’re just having dinner.”
“That’s true, but we might not see each other for a whole month if I go!”
“A month from now is still only the middle of July. There’s still more than a month of summer vacation left after that. We can meet up in the province capital then and go out every day—if you’re not afraid of the heat.”
“Mmm……then should I tell him to buy me a plane ticket?”
“You’re not leaving tomorrow, are you?”
“Pfft, no, it won’t be that fast. But if I’m going, it’ll probably be within the next few days.”
“Mmm……”