Chapter 91: Sports Day
The next morning, Yu Fan rode his electric scooter to the front gate of Li Mu’s apartment complex.
He was yawning with nothing to do, and after waiting a little while, he finally saw Li Mu slowly walking out from inside.
“Hey, breakfast.” He took a breakfast bag from the hook near the scooter’s keyhole and handed it to Li Mu, while complaining, “It’s so annoying. Two times in a row now, false reports of ghosts. Stuff like this should be treated the same as fake police reports. There are fewer ghost hunters like us than police, you know?”
He kept grumbling to himself, but didn’t get any reply. When he looked up, he saw Li Mu standing off to the side, eating breakfast, but with a blank expression.
“What’s wrong? Realized you’ve completely turned into a woman?”
Li Mu shook his head tiredly. “No.”
“Then why do you look so down?”
He stayed quiet for a bit. After finishing a meat bun not even as big as a baby’s fist, he said softly, "It won't take much longer."
Back at the school dorm, it was hard for him to check himself carefully. His roommates were almost always around, and his body’s changes weren’t easy to notice unless he looked closely.
Because of that, his roommates didn’t notice anything, and he himself avoided checking. After a week or two, the changes had gotten to a point that was hard for him to accept.
Why was almost every part of his body like a girl's?
“When the time comes, let me have a little fun with you.”
“......”
“Just kidding. Get on, or we’ll be late and have to climb the wall to get in.” Yu Fan handed over a helmet and pouted. “You really can’t take a joke, huh.”
Some jokes just shouldn’t be made.
Li Mu threw away the breakfast wrapper, got on the back seat of the scooter, and pulled his jacket tighter to hide the shape of his chest.
They didn’t talk at all on the way. Yu Fan noticed that Li Mu seemed really down, and Li Mu wasn’t in the mood to chat anyway.
It wasn’t until they reached the school gates, after Yu Fan parked the scooter under the bike shed, that he hesitantly said, “Maybe… go get a check-up?”
“I already did before.”
“But the changes weren’t this bad back then.”
True. Before, it was just hormonal changes. But now… even the “little Li Mu” seemed like he might disappear any time.
Li Mu went quiet again for a long time. Then he said, “If there’s something going on this weekend, take me with you.”
“Uncle Chen Yi won’t let you.”
Yu Fan scratched his head, lately he had been doing that a lot more than usual. He was starting to worry he’d go bald from stress.
“Don’t tell him,” Li Mu said, walking straight toward the school gate.
Yu Fan quickly locked the scooter and hurried to catch up with him, trying to cheer him up. “How about a haircut at lunch? If your hair’s short, maybe you won’t look so girly.”
Without even turning his head, Li Mu replied coldly, “Lying to myself?”
Yu Fan didn’t know what to do. When he talked to girls, he could usually smile in a friendly, sunny way, say a few nice things, and they’d be easily won over. But with Li Mu, none of that worked. In fact, it sometimes even felt like he was making things worse.
Soon, Yu Fan had another idea.
“Then… how about surgery? You know, to turn yourself back into a guy?” His eyes lit up as he explained excitedly, “I mean, these days gender change surgeries are super common, right? And if you ever want kids, there’s always adoption, or IVF… There’s always a way!”
Li Mu felt even worse.
Yu Fan was completely at a loss, panicking like a little kid.
The heavy rain from a few days ago didn’t really affect today’s sports day. At most, the long jump sandpit was still a little wet.
Students were wandering around the field in small groups, waiting for the opening ceremony to begin. Li Mu and Yu Fan walked side by side, but neither of them knew what to say.
They found their class group. The classmates had already set up tables and chairs under some green trees for the athletes and the students writing cheer-up messages to rest. Yang Ye had also bought a bunch of sports drinks, which were stacked up on the side.
As soon as Yu Fan arrived, a few girls were drawn to him. Taking the chance while Yu Fan was being surrounded, Li Mu quietly sat down in a corner.
“Brother Mu! Brother Mu!”
Zhao Pan, who had just come from the dorm building, spotted Li Mu right away and happily ran over, trying to take credit. “I helped answer roll call for you last night.”
“Mm.” Li Mu’s face stayed cold.
Then Wang Chen came over too, looking hopeful. “Your sister’s WeChat…”
Before he knew it, Li Mu realized all four of his dorm mates had somehow gathered around him.
He looked up and glanced at them.
Strangely, even though he usually had no presence in the dorm, now he seemed to be the center of attention.
It didn’t make sense.
“Where’s Liu Menglong?”
“Still in the dorm catching up on sleep,” Zhao Yu replied casually while watching anime.
“Then I’ll head back too.” Li Mu wanted to go somewhere quiet to calm down.
Zhao Pan added, “Brother Mu, the gate is locked already.”
Fine then. Liu Menglong had a good relationship with the dorm supervisor, so he could get away with some things. But Li Mu still had to follow the dorm rules.
Just then, Yang Ye showed up from who-knows-where. When he saw Li Mu, he called out from afar. “Li Juan!”
Li Mu couldn’t even be bothered to respond, this guy was testing him again.
“Li Juan?” Wang Chen looked confused. “Your sister is here too?”
“He’s just blind and saw the wrong person.”
“Actually, yeah, you and your sister look so alike.”
“We’re twins.”
Li Mu was getting better and better at lying, he didn’t even need to think about it anymore.
Yang Ye walked over, still smiling, and said, “Oops, my bad. Since you’re here, Li Mu, come help us write some cheer-up messages.”
“???”
Li Mu looked up, confused. Usually, only the girls who weren’t taking part in the events helped with stuff like this.
“Well, you don’t seem busy anyway.”
They’re all not busy!
He was about to say that, but when he looked at his dorm mates, he saw all of them suddenly walk off with serious faces.
“Oh right, I was going to go cheer for Yu Fan!”
“I need to hand out energy drinks to the athletes!”
“Brother Mu, I’m off to get breakfast!”
Only Wang Chen was left, smiling awkwardly. “Want me to help you write?”
“Get lost.”
Li Mu figured Yang Ye probably had something he wanted to say in private.
After the others all left, Yang Ye gave him a grin and said, “Your sister seems totally different from you. You two are twins, right?”
“Yeah.”
“How come I never heard about her before?”
“Back then, people were only allowed to have one kid. My mom said having twins meant you had to pay a fine, so she gave her to a relative to raise.”
Li Mu had already worked out the story with Yu Fan, so his answer was smooth and believable.