Zhu Niao and Gou Yu were getting ready to head out.
After seeing his best bro go through such a bizarre experience, Gou Yu decided to skip his food delivery job for now.
He hopped on his electric scooter and waved at Zhu Niao.
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”
“It’s not far. You can go to work first,” Zhu Niao said, seeming a bit reluctant to let anyone else take a break while she didn’t.
“I can spare a bit of time. Besides, I don’t feel good letting you go out alone right now.”
“What’s there to worry about?”
Zhu Niao tilted her head slightly, her silky long hair swaying in the breeze.
After climbing onto the scooter, she casually leaned against Gou Yu’s back, leaving only a faint lavender scent lingering around him.
That—was exactly what he was worried about.
His best bro now looked like a delicate, freshly ripened fruit—soft, fragrant, and inviting, without even the thorns that a rose had.
At the very least, she was his best bro.
He had to protect her.
“We’re going to the milk tea shop, right?” Gou Yu asked, ready to head off.
“You want a milk tea?” Zhu Niao asked.
Gou Yu didn’t believe Zhu Niao would be that generous.
“You buying?”
“We can share one.”
Gou Yu nodded slightly, then froze, turning to look at Zhu Niao.
Those light brown eyes blinked innocently, clear as a mountain spring.
Somehow, it made Gou Yu feel like he was the one with impure thoughts.
“Damn, making it sound like your bro can’t afford a drink. I’ll treat you.”
Feeling uncomfortably awkward, Gou Yu shifted all his focus onto driving and suddenly twisted the throttle.
The abrupt start made Zhu Niao instinctively wrap her arms around his waist.
The softness pressed against his back nearly made him lose control of the scooter.
Thankfully, once they steadied, Zhu Niao quickly let go, sparing him from any wandering thoughts.
The school gate wasn’t far from their shared place. It wouldn’t even take Zhu Niao long to walk there.
But Gou Yu didn’t feel comfortable, and Zhu Niao was too lazy to walk anyway.
“That the place?”
“Should be.”
Just then, Gou Yu’s expression shifted as he spotted something.
“Get off! Hurry! Cops!”
Zhu Niao placed her delicate hand on Gou Yu’s shoulder and lifted herself up slightly, spotting a white police cap not far off.
“Perfect timing. You go ahead to work,” she said, shaking her head.
She knew Gou Yu wasn’t exactly rolling in money, scraping by with odd jobs.
“Alright, I’m off then.”
Her small hands instinctively hugged Gou Yu’s waist before hopping off the back seat of the scooter.
“If anything comes up, call me,” Gou Yu said, putting on the only helmet from the scooter and speeding away.
The long-haired girl stood tall and graceful, watching her best bro ride off.
Then she began to feel all the eyes turning toward her.
Maybe it was her changed body, but Zhu Niao now noticed stares much more acutely and felt distinctly uncomfortable.
She already missed her good bro.
If Gou Yu were still by her side, he’d definitely be shielding her from those lingering gazes.
Pressing her lips together, she lowered her head and sped up toward the milk tea shop.
But because she was looking down, she didn’t see what was right in front of her.
Suddenly, she felt dizzy—like she’d just bumped into something soft and springy.
The recoil actually bounced her back a bit.
“Ah! Sorry, sorry…”
Zhu Niao instinctively apologized, then looked up—and froze for a second.
Standing before her was a tall blonde woman, noticeably taller than her.
The woman’s tight white shirt was barely holding back her ample chest, threatening to pop the buttons.
A teasing smile danced on her face, and her long curly blonde hair was tied up in a high ponytail.
Her pants stretched slightly over her shapely legs, accentuating her curves even more.
“Such a beautiful young lady…” the blonde raised an eyebrow.
Then, as if something caught her eye, her gaze zeroed in on the teardrop-shaped mole beneath Zhu Niao’s right eye.
Zhu Niao couldn’t shake the odd sense of familiarity in this woman’s features.
Then she felt it—the bold, invasive stare trailing down her neckline… and landing squarely on her chest.
“I win!”
With a triumphant shout, the blonde pumped her fist into the air and grabbed Zhu Niao, dragging her straight into the milk tea shop.
Zhu Niao stumbled helplessly from the sudden force, looking soft and frail as she was tugged along.
The blonde forcibly pulled her into a quiet corner of the shop, where two other beautiful girls were already sitting at a small round table.
“I win! You two are buying!”
The blonde girl cheerfully declared her victory, making a few exaggerated gestures.
First, she pointed at the two beautiful girls already seated at the round table.
“Small cup.”
Then she pointed at Zhu Niao, whom she had just dragged over.
“Medium cup.”
Finally, she gave her own generous chest a smug little lift.
“Extra large cup!”
Zhu Niao had fully realized what was going on now.
These were her infamously unreliable dormmates.
“And we’re in the middle of a crisis, and you idiots are actually holding a size contest?”
“Gotta find joy even in the darkest times,” said the brown-haired loli sipping on a full-sugar boba tea.
Zhu Niao squinted for a long moment before recognizing her: this was Yang Shuli, their dorm leader.
Now the eldest had been turned into the most petite one?
She had a hunch that was the work of that twisted rookie goddess again.
“Honestly, panicking won’t help. Life’s like… a spinning wheel. If you can’t fight it, you might as well enjoy the ride.”
That soft, emotionless line came from a cool-looking girl adjusting her glasses.
It was spoken so gently it almost sounded fluffy.
That was Ye Qingchang, the third in their dorm.
Which meant the blonde who dragged her in had to be…
Liu Xie, the dorm’s infamous second-in-command.
“Medium cup is still a medium cup. No use barking, loser.”
“You son of a—!” Zhu Niao was about to explode.
“Hey, hey! Leave the family out of this!” said the tiny dorm leader Yang Shuli, quickly stopping her from launching a kill order on Liu Xie’s mom.
Zhu Niao exhaled deeply and took the empty seat they’d saved for her.
They had even ordered her milk tea: jasmine green, light ice, half sugar.
“You got that phone call too, right, Xiao Niao?”
Zhu Niao tilted her head, only now realizing they were talking about that unreliable rookie goddess.
“Yeah.”
“I booted her out of the group chat,” Liu Xie said flatly.
“Wait… what?” Zhu Niao blinked in disbelief.
“You kicked what now?”
“A literal Tang Dynasty soldier popped out of nowhere, that’s when I had no choice but to believe her,” Liu Xie said flatly.
Then she leaned in a little closer toward Zhu Niao and added,
“Also, Xiao Niao, listen… after we woke up in the girls’ dorm, our phones, laptops—hell, even the clothes in our wardrobes—were all switched.”
She gave Zhu Niao’s white dress a meaningful glance.
“You too, right?”
Zhu Niao briefly recalled the eye-searing horror that was her wardrobe.
There were just… no words.
“The real issue now is whether we’re willing to give in, just to turn back,” said Ye Qingchang, finally steering the conversation back to the point.
“Ugh…” Dorm leader Yang Shuli and Liu Xie both made conflicted sounds.
Clearly, the ‘romantic targets’ assigned to them by that rookie goddess were… less than ideal.
Zhu Niao’s expression, on the other hand, darkened.
“I mean,” Ye Qingchang sipped her milk tea, tone still calm, “we’ve already become girls. Life goes on either way. So what if it’s like this?”
“No.”
Three pairs of eyes immediately turned toward Zhu Niao, who sat there with a furrowed brow and a face like a brewing storm.
“No,” she said again, firmly.
“I will turn back.”