Chapter 22: Xiao Han Is Getting Cuter and Cuter
“Brother Long, don’t you think An Han’s been acting a bit strange lately?”
It was nighttime in the dorm balcony. Chen Junjie lit a cigarette, leaned against the railing, and asked Long Xing.
“Really?”
Even though Long Xing looked like a gangster, he actually didn’t smoke at all. He waved his hand in front of his face in disgust, trying to fan away the cigarette smell drifting from Chen Junjie’s side.
“At most, he just looks a bit better than before,” he said after thinking for a moment, not taking it too seriously. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is huge!”
Chen Junjie said in a serious tone, “Look! The girl you like looks a lot like An Han. That girl has this faint milk scent, and guess what? An Han has that same milk scent. He—”
“I told you before, don’t use my business as an excuse to mess with Xiao Han.” Long Xing cut him off, his voice firm. “I’m not stupid. I can tell the difference between a guy and a girl. Even if I couldn’t see it, I can still hear it.”
Chen Junjie paused, turning his head with some frustration. “Well, I still think it’s An Han.”
He couldn’t tell if it was because of how An Han had been acting lately, or just his own bias. But ever since he saw that photo Long Xing secretly took, he was convinced the “girl” in it was actually An Han in women’s clothes.
But if it was An Han in disguise, how come the voice sounded completely real? No cracks at all?
“Hey! Are you guys watching the movie or not? It’s about to start!”
Suddenly, An Han stuck his head out from the dorm room, gripping the balcony door frame.
“What are you two whispering about out there? So secretive!”
It was late, and both the balcony and the dorm room lights were off. Long Xing turned his head toward the voice, and by the dim glow from the opposite dorm building’s windows, he saw An Han’s face.
The soft shadows blurred his features, and for a moment, Long Xing almost thought he was looking at a girl.
She looked exactly like the girl he liked. The same big eyes, the same tall nose, the same thin lips.
The only difference was that the girl he liked always had a shy and cautious look in her eyes, while An Han’s gaze was full of playfulness and mischief.
“What are you staring at?” An Han’s heart skipped a beat under his intense gaze. Afraid he might notice something, he quickly turned away and dodged his eyes. “Didn’t we say we’d watch a Marvel movie tonight? I worked hard to find that 2K copy! Hurry up and come inside!”
He rushed back into the room, while Long Xing looked at Chen Junjie again.
“See what I mean? Especially at night, they look almost identical, except for the hairstyle.”
Long Xing hesitated, then took out his phone again to look at the photo he took that night. After staring at it for a long while, he finally let out a deep breath of relief and said with a faint smile, “No, not the same.”
“Huh?”
“If An Han were cross-dressing, he’d look even better than her.”
“......”
The last time he saw An Han dressed as a girl, Long Xing hadn’t taken a close look, his only impression came from that photo.
Still, the result surprised even him. He thought An Han’s girl look was actually more beautiful than the girl he had fallen for at first sight.
Long Xing was the first to return to the dorm room. Inside, An Han was already sitting side by side with Wang Sheng, watching a movie on Wang Sheng’s 144Hz monitor.
Inside the dorm, the only light came from the computer screen.
Hearing the sound of someone entering, An Han turned his head and asked, “Junjie said again that the girl you like is me in women’s clothes, didn’t he?”
“No idea what’s going on in that guy’s head.”
“He just doesn’t like me and wants to mess with me!” An Han said angrily, sounding completely righteous. “His conscience must be broken!”
Long Xing only smiled at him quietly, watching until An Han felt guilty and turned his head away.
“You… don’t think that was me in women’s clothes too, right...?”
An Han poured the milk he had bought into a glass, then deliberately spilled some on his pants.
He didn’t feel at ease. He thought that meeting Long Xing last time while wearing women’s clothes would have cleared everything up, but now it seemed that the more he did, the worse it got, and he was just exposing himself more and more.
At first, they just thought he looked like that girl, but now they were finding more and more things in common...
“N-no, of course not.” Long Xing pulled a chair over and sat next to Wang Sheng, crossing his legs and focusing on the movie playing on the screen.
Wang Sheng, as usual, didn’t plan to get involved. He was a simple guy. Outside of gaming, he had no other hobbies, and people often forgot he was even there.
Just then, there was a knock on the door, and the dorm manager uncle pushed it open.
“Roll call.”
He looked around the room and asked, “Where’s Chen Junjie?”
“On the balcony.”
Hearing the voice, the balcony door opened, and Chen Junjie stuck his head in, waving at the dorm manager.
An Han immediately ran up to the dorm manager with a big grin. “Uncle, is the school checking for illegal electrical appliances these days?”
“Haven’t heard anything.”
“Oh~ that’s good.”
It wasn’t that he was worried about their pots and pans being confiscated. What he really feared was that if the school came to check for illegal items, they might find his stash of women’s clothes.
If that happened, the counselor, the student union, the dorm manager, and even the department teachers might all be present… The scene would be so horrifying that he didn’t even dare imagine it.
The dorm manager ticked names off his list, glancing at An Han sideways.
“You guys aren’t planning to have hotpot in the dorm again, are you?”
“Of course not~”
“Never learn your lesson! I’ve never met students as troublesome as you!”
An Han just let the words go in one ear and out the other. He’d heard this kind of scolding all his life and was long used to it.
After the dorm manager left, he sat back down on his chair and looked at the Marvel movie playing on the computer.
To be honest, he wasn’t very interested in superhero movies. But since Long Xing and Wang Sheng were fans, he watched along anyway.
Yawning, he stared blankly at the movie’s special effects, his head full of recent troubles.
Ever since the system appeared, his life had only gotten messier.
An Han looked down at his chest. It hadn’t gotten bigger, but the occasional sharp pain there made him uneasy. Maybe he should go to the hospital this weekend.
And the… “exposure issue” was another headache. His roommates hadn’t noticed anything yet, but he was very aware of it.
Suddenly, a familiar mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[Task complete.]
[Reward obtained: +1 to body attribute.]
The sudden appearance of the system interface made An Han freeze. Right after that, his phone buzzed with a message from Wu Dongming.
“I actually rented a girlfriend for a day. This is insane.”
“You don’t need to help tomorrow. Get lost!”
An Han glanced at the two messages and felt uneasy again.
Now his body attribute had reached two points.
So what did that mean? Was it making him develop abs… or turning him into someone with long legs and a big chest? He should start seeing some signs by now, right?
Hearing the sound of a chair moving beside him, Long Xing looked up and saw An Han’s slim figure walking toward the balcony.
“Not watching anymore?”
“I’m gonna take a shower,” An Han said casually.
Long Xing scratched his head, watching that backlit figure.
Why did An Han’s waist look thinner all of a sudden?
His silhouette under the light looked completely feminine. His frame small and delicate, his posture graceful, nothing like a man’s.
A sudden thought popped into Long Xing’s mind.
If the girl I like really turned out to be An Han in women’s clothes… maybe that wouldn’t be so bad after all?
“What are you thinking about?” Chen Junjie came up beside him, grinning slyly.
“Xiao Han…” Long Xing murmured. “He’s getting cuter and cuter.”