Chapter 100: Wake Up! We're Both Guys! That Kind of Thing Is Not Okay
I’m Lin Yibai.
A boy in my heart!
But right now... my body is female.
Something small went wrong, and now as a boy-in-mind with a girl’s body, I actually thought another guy’s scent smelled… kind of nice.
Really nice. Like, oddly attractive. My heart and body were both panicking.
She started hitting her own head and tried to force herself to wake up.
Snap out of it! Xia Changyu is a guy, okay? Hurry up, right now, immediately… make a grossed-out face! Reject that crazy-good smell! Yeah—just say… just say he smells bad. Yup, that’s it! We’ll go with that, hahaha.
Smart me. So clever, right?
She frowned with her good-looking eyebrows, made a sad and serious face, turned her head slightly to the side—
Say no to the smell of men! Start with yourself!
But in Xia Changyu’s eyes, the whole thing looked completely different.
He only saw a girl take a sniff of his chest. Then suddenly her face changed completely.
No way… did that mean… he stinks?
Xia Changyu really wanted to smell himself too, but he didn’t want to be rude in front of her, so he had to ask awkwardly.
“Um… do I smell bad or something?”
“Don’t ask!”
Now Xia Changyu got even more nervous. He quickly explained.
“I swear took a shower last night! And I washed my hair this morning! I even changed into clean clothes!”
Hearing that made Lin Yibai feel even more guilty. Because the one with the problem was actually her!
She was the one hiding something, so blaming someone else felt really wrong.
“Please stop asking... seriously.”
If he asked again, she felt like the truth would totally come out!
Then Xia Changyu said, “I’m sorry... maybe I missed something. If I made you uncomfortable, I’ll go change right away. I’m really sorry.”
Whoa whoa whoa—brother, don’t be like this!
As a guy, you can’t just say sorry to a girl like that all the time! Now I don’t know what to do!
Seeing Xia Changyu looking so guilty and even about to leave to change his clothes, Lin Yibai finally couldn’t take it anymore.
She quickly grabbed the edge of his shirt and said, “Ah—no, no, no! I never said you smell bad! You're just overthinking it!”
Xia Changyu paused and said, “But you…?”
His expression just now, plus his actions, it really made her think she did something wrong! And Lin Yibai had something to say too!
‘If I don’t act like you smell bad, do you want me to admit that you smell good?!’
She scratched her head. Then carefully chose her words in her mind before saying, “Here’s the thing, I personally think… your scent is okay.”
Xia Changyu looked confused. “Okay? What does okay mean? So I still kind of smell weird?”
Hearing how he misunderstood her words again, Lin Yibai started to panic a bit.
“Stop twisting my words! Can’t you understand properly?” Lin Yibai was getting a headache.
But she didn’t want to lie just to get out of it, so she struggled and said,
“What do you mean ‘what do I mean’? When I said your smell is okay, I meant it doesn’t stink. What more do you want me to say? You can’t expect me, as a girl, to say that your scent is really nice and that it makes my head spin, right?”
Xia Changyu: “......”
Hiss~~~
She actually said that out loud!!
Now Xia Changyu seemed to realize something. Even though Lin Yibai had tried her best to hide it, it still sounded like…
Maybe this girl really liked how he smelled.
Whoa.
Big breakthrough! Progress!
But then, seeing how uncomfortable Lin Yibai looked, Xia Changyu quickly hid the smug look that had started to appear on his face.
Compared to feeling proud or happy, he cared more about how this girl was feeling.
So he quickly said, “I didn’t mean it that way. Uh... how about we just keep practicing?”
Lin Yibai gave him a sharp look. Was this guy made of wood or something?
She had expected Xia Changyu to take advantage of the moment. But instead, he gave up the chance just to make sure she felt okay.
How dumb can he be?!
But... could it be...
If he didn’t really like me, why would he let a chance like this go?
Lin Yibai took a deep breath, then sighed softly and said, “Practice what? Forget it, we’re done for today.”
Xia Changyu asked, “Lin Baiyi, are you mad?”
“I’m not mad.”
“You say you’re not, but your face and attitude look just like a girl who's angry.”
“I swear, I’m really not mad.”
“But—”
“No more but! Please just let it go!”
“......”
If they kept going in circles like this, Lin Yibai felt like she might really start doubting herself.
Has my heart already changed? No! That’s impossible!
I, Lin Yibai, will always be a guy.
She asked Xia Changyu to send her a copy of the dance practice video. She planned to practice more at home, anything was better than messing up like she just did. Besides, dance practice was super tiring anyway.
As she packed up her things, Lin Yibai said, “How about we just leave it for today? Let’s head back?”
Xia Changyu replied, “You go ahead.”
Lin Yibai frowned slightly, confused. “Why? What are you staying behind for?”
Xia Changyu pointed at the whole office area and said, “I just remembered, there are some computers I need to fix, and I’ll also pull a few more network cables.”
Because the company was still growing, the office looked messy, with network cables running all over the place. How else could he ask Lin Yibai to stay longer?
After all, their relationship wasn’t close enough yet to just say, ‘Hey, let me walk you home.’
So Lin Yibai went downstairs alone. As she walked out the front door, she felt secretly happy.
Finally done for the day! Work is over again!
But when she walked past the school gate, for some reason, she suddenly felt a little empty inside.
At this time of day before, whenever work ended, Xia Changyu would always insist on walking her part of the way.
Lin Yibai crossed the street at the traffic light. She looked back at the small startup office, and could still see the lights shining through the windows.
She scratched her head, and before she knew it, she had turned around and crossed back to the other side of the street again.
Then she slapped her forehead, as if remembering something, and crossed the road again to the other side to buy a takeout meal of noodles and dumplings.
As she walked toward the startup office building, she mumbled to herself.
“It’s nothing, really. I didn’t mean to come back. I just thought, since he helped me so much today, I’d buy him a little late-night snack to say thank you.”
And the more confident she had felt earlier while walking away, the more awkward she felt now as she came back.
After all, I’m Lin Yibai! Don’t I have any pride?!
So she just stood outside the door, waiting.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but then her eyes lit up. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and she recognized them right away as Xia Changyu’s.
Just as Xia Changyu walked past quickly, Lin Yibai called out. “Hey! What a coincidence!”
“Whoa!!”
“What are you freaking out for?”
“I…” Xia Changyu wanted to say he had really been scared just now, but he didn’t say it, because something else caught his attention.
Lin Yibai was holding out a bag toward him. A delicious smell of food came from inside.
She looked away and said in an awkward tone. “I accidentally ordered too much food. Since you worked so hard helping me today, I thought I’d give it to you. It’s cheap, but I hope you don’t mind.”
And then she turned and walked away without looking back.
Xia Changyu opened the food container to take a look and he couldn’t help but laugh.
The noodles were all stuck together because they'd gone cold and clumpy from being untouched for some time.
She said, “What a coincidence,” but she had clearly been waiting here for a long time, hadn’t she?