Chapter 176: The First Night in the Girls’ Dorm
Li Mu normally didn’t talk much with girls, let alone live in a girls' dorm. That made her feel a little nervous.
She took a shower and came back to the dorm dressed neatly.
Before her body started to look more like a girl’s, no matter the season, spring, summer, fall, or winter, she would just walk back to the dorm from the shower room wearing only underwear.
But after her body started changing, she had to get used to doing everything, taking off clothes, showering, and putting on clothes, inside the small shower stall.
There wasn’t even a place to put clothes, so no matter how careful she was, her clean clothes would still get a little wet.
She opened the door and had only taken a few steps into the room when Wang Ruoyan suddenly asked curiously, “Li Mu, didn’t you bring pajamas?”
“I don’t have any pajamas.” She sat on the chair playing with her phone, feeling a little out of place with her new roommates.
“Huh? You sleep in jeans? Isn’t that super uncomfortable?”
Li Mu looked down at her jeans and had to admit, it was kind of ridiculous.
Back when she was in the boys’ dorm, she wore jeans to avoid people staring at her body.
But now that she was in the girls’ dorm, maybe it was finally time to buy a few sets of her own pajamas.
“I have an extra set. Do you want to wear it?”
She looked up and saw Wang Ruoyan had already run over and stuffed a light, thin camisole nightdress into her hands.
“No, thank you.”
Li Mu’s lips twitched slightly. Even though she had already gotten used to wearing girls' underwear, she still wasn’t ready to wear something so revealing. Even if it was just in front of a few girls in the dorm.
“This nightdress is super comfy! I wear it every summer,” Wang Ruoyan said with hopeful eyes.
No... judging by your face, you probably just want to see me change clothes, right?
I thought you liked Yu Fan? Why do you seem kind of... into girls too?
After thinking for a moment, Li Mu still shook her head and said, “You’re too short. I probably won’t fit into it.”
Even if she managed to wear it, that knee-length dress would probably look like a mini-skirt on her.
“Aww, what a pity.”
Wang Ruoyan looked disappointed as she took her nightdress back, and Li Mu could only sigh quietly.
“She’s always like that,” Chen Li spoke slowly, her voice gentle and soft. Her smiling eyes looked like little crescent moons. “She doesn’t mean any harm. Don’t worry about it too much.”
“It’s okay. I know.”
Ever since she helped Wang Ruoyan go on that date with Yu Fan, she knew this girl might be a little… off. A normal girl wouldn’t try to help the guy she likes go on a date with another guy.
“Your name’s Li Mu, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve been hearing your name a lot in class lately,” Chen Li said while covering her mouth and smiling gently. “They all say you were the prettiest boy in school… but turns out, you’re actually a girl.”
“Uh… well…” Li Mu didn’t know what to say. It felt like the conversation had hit a wall.
The other girls in the room were all quietly watching her with curious eyes. They had been holding back, but their curiosity finally got the best of them.
“Why did you live in the boys’ dorm before?”
Sure enough, Chen Li asked the question that the other two roommates had probably been wanting to ask too.
And… it was a really hard question to answer.
She honestly never thought she’d end up living in the girls’ dorm. She had planned to stay at this school for just two more months, so she thought she could just keep pretending and not deal with the gender stuff. But then Yang Ye suddenly showed up and ruined her plan.
At this point, she felt like it might’ve been better to just live at Yu Fan’s rented apartment.
Li Mu kept a straight face, but her thoughts were racing like never before, like a computer’s CPU running at full speed. Maybe it was because her brain was working too hard, or maybe the question was just too tricky, but eventually, her “CPU” overheated.
Without a second thought, she gave up, quickly climbed into bed, and hid under the blanket like an ostrich. She really didn’t have a good reason to explain herself.
If she told them the truth, that she used to be a guy, they would probably think she was transgender.
If she said her parents raised her as a boy because they only wanted sons... that would sound way too fake!
“Huh?” Chen Li looked up at the big lump on the bed.
“Let’s not ask about personal stuff, okay?” Lin Yuanyuan smiled while helping Li Mu out. Even though she was actually more curious than Chen Li.
Li Mu poked her head out from under the blanket and gave Lin Yuanyuan a thankful look. But when she looked over at Wang Ruoyan, her heart skipped a beat in shock.
Then she realized Wang Ruoyan was just wearing a face mask. That pale face was because of skincare.
Back in the boys’ dorm, nobody used face masks. Most of them only washed their faces quickly in the morning and at night with face wash.
These days, Li Mu had bought some skincare products because Xiao Jing kept urging her to. But she wasn’t used to using them, so they were still sitting at home and she often forgot about them.
“You going to sleep now?” Perhaps noticing Li Mu's gaze, Wang Ruoyan looked up and said, “Aren’t you going to put on a face mask before bed?”
“No, thanks,” she shook her head.
“But your skin feels really soft after a mask! If you use them often, it’s really good for your skin. They even help make your skin whiter! You really don’t want one?” Wang Ruoyan pulled a mask out of her drawer.
“Other than helping with dry skin, most of the other stuff is just for show,” Li Mu said.
She had looked this up when buying skincare. People said cheap masks and expensive ones didn’t make much difference. They mostly helped with moisturizing. Things like whitening or anti-wrinkle were pretty useless.
She didn’t know if that was true or not, but she was too lazy to use them anyway.
Just as Wang Ruoyan was about to say something else, Li Mu mumbled to herself, “Besides, my skin’s already pretty fair, and I don’t have pimples...”
“......”
Wang Ruoyan gave her a slow look, then muttered with jealousy, “Must be nice to be born beautiful... look at my skin, it’s so dark.”
“Your tan looks good though, it’s not bad.”
“Hearing that from someone with perfect skin sounds like you’re just showing off,” Wang Ruoyan grumbled and turned away, not talking to Li Mu anymore.
Before, when she thought Li Mu was a guy, she felt frustrated that even then, she couldn’t beat Li Mu to win over Yu Fan. Now that Li Mu turned out to be a girl, she felt like she had no chance at all.
In the dorm, all three girls were doing some kind of skincare routine. Lin Yuanyuan even had a glowing makeup mirror and was watching beauty videos while trying out makeup.
Li Mu realized the girls’ dorm wasn’t as scary as the rumors said, where all girls split into different groups. Other than their conversations feeling a bit... flirty, and the room being messy because of all their stuff, there wasn’t anything too strange.
Oh right, the bathroom at the end of the hall smelled really bad! And there was no coin laundry machine here!
Thinking about the clothes soaking in her bucket gave her a headache. Fall and winter clothes are already hard to wash, and the cold water stung like ice.
She turned over and stopped looking at her roommates. Lying flat, she stared at the old ceiling.
Over in the boys’ dorm, they were probably gaming together right now, yelling like crazy. Every night, the shouting used to drive her nuts.
But here, the girls just chatted in high-pitched, clear voices. At least the sound wasn’t annoying.
And then... Wang Ruoyan started asking Lin Yuanyuan to play games together.
So it turned out she really did like games?
She wasn’t just pretending to impress Yu Fan?