Chapter 225: Hurting Each Other
When An Han was still too young to remember anything, her grandmother had already passed away.
Her grandpa lived alone for almost twenty years, but luckily most of his children stayed nearby. They often brought their kids to visit him, and he himself loved playing mahjong, going to the senior center every day, so he never felt lonely.
Especially today, it was extremely lively~
On one side was her suddenly becoming a girl, and on the other side was her cousin and cousin planning to get married…
If her female cousin hadn’t been caught stealing the household registration book, and if the country didn’t have the “fictionalized kinship” law, the two of them might have gotten married without anyone knowing.
An Han pushed open the dining room door and peeked in at her grandpa sitting by the table.
“Come here, sit.”
She glanced at her grandpa, who had one foot on a chair and was focused on eating sunflower seeds, not even looking at her. She took tiny steps and sat across from him.
She felt a bit nervous…
Her grandpa had always treated her very well. Every time she visited, he would give her dozens or even hundreds of yuan in pocket money, and he always prepared her favorite dishes. But this didn’t stop her from feeling uneasy.
An Han sat with her back straight, thighs pressed tightly together, hands flat on her legs, looking very obedient and well-behaved.
Grandpa finally looked up, examined her face from top to bottom, and nodded.
“You look a lot like your mother when she was young.”
“R-really…?”
She stuttered a little and forced a smile.
She had seen photos of her mother when she was young and didn’t really think they looked that similar, but she agreed anyway.
“What are you planning to do from now on?” Grandpa took the liquor bottle beside him and took a sip.
“Live life normally… finish university first.”
“Mm.”
Grandpa didn’t seem to know how to interact with the current An Han. After a short silence, he stood up, went to the kitchen, took out a box of roasted duck, and poured the sauce that came with it into a small bowl.
An Han used to love that cheap roasted duck that cost ten or twenty yuan. She was tired of it now, but her grandpa still bought it for her every time.
“Chopsticks.” He handed her a pair of chopsticks, then continued, “Your mom said she wants to find you some reliable men for blind dates?”
“Uh…”
An Han immediately tensed up, afraid that grandpa would agree with her mom.
“In my opinion, what ‘reliable men’ are there?” Grandpa’s face didn’t change much, but his tone was gentle. “She just wants to feel at ease. She’s afraid you’ll get tricked by someone outside.”
It seemed grandpa didn’t agree with her mother’s controlling nature.
An Han let out a breath of relief. “Mm, I know.”
She reached out to grab a duck leg, but stopped and instead used chopsticks to pick it up, though it was as big as her fist and very heavy.
Now that she was a girl, she should at least try to eat more elegantly in front of grandpa.
But the duck leg was so heavy… she couldn’t lift it properly.
She glanced at grandpa and asked curiously, “What do you think about cousin and cousin’s situation…?”
“I’m already half in the grave. I don’t feel like managing young people’s business.”
But grandpa quickly brought the topic back to her. “I heard you have a boy you like?”
“Well… he’s my classmate. It’s not really ‘like’…”
As soon as she mentioned him, the expression she tried so hard to control softened. A shy blush spread across her cheeks.
She lowered her head, and under the table her fingers nervously played with the edge of her skirt.
“His name is… Su Peng, right?”
“Yeah.”
Grandpa took out his phone, opened WeChat, and scrolled through his Moments a few times. Then he turned the screen toward An Han.
“This guy?”
An Han looked at the chubby man in the picture and shook her head hard.
“No, that’s not him. Must be someone else with the same name.”
Obviously, the man in the photo looked nothing like Su Peng. Their body shapes and facial features were completely different.
“I thought it was such a coincidence,” Grandpa muttered and put down his phone.
“There are quite a lot of people with that name.”
Just the number An Han knew was already three. Two of them were even professional Dota players.
Grandpa kept looking at her face and couldn’t help letting out a quiet sigh.
His grandson had already become a granddaughter. No matter what, it was too late to change anything. All he could do now was give her advice about the future.
“Are you getting used to being a girl?”
“It’s… okay, I guess…”
An Han lifted her head awkwardly, her lips greasy with duck fat.
The only trouble was her period. Her bleeding was especially heavy, and she had to change pads every few hours. If she forgot, it would leak…
Although she didn’t have painful cramps like some girls, for someone who used to be a boy, it was still enough to give her headaches.
The arguing in the living room still hadn’t reached a conclusion. The voices were getting louder, and it sounded like tempers were rising.
Grandpa also started feeling restless. He stood up and left the dining room. Only then did An Han finally feel relieved.
“So it was this easy to get through?”
“I thought today would be a nightmare…”
She talked to herself while grabbing the roast duck with her hands now that no one else was in the room.
A nightmare did happen, but it was her cousins’ nightmare. So miserable.
If her cousin and the other cousin hadn’t taken all the attention, she would be the one standing beside the sofa today, being surrounded by a bunch of relatives talking about her gender and relationship issues.
The noise outside calmed down a bit, and her cousin Wu Hao walked into the dining room.
She and Wu Hao basically grew up together, but this time, their meeting felt very different.
The air was awkward and stiff.
Wu Hao sat where Grandpa had been sitting, lowered his head, and used the corner of his eye to look at her face. In his heart, he quietly praised her. Before today, he could never have imagined that the naughty troublemaker he grew up with had become a beautiful girl.
And An Han had almost the same thought.
Before today, she could never have imagined that Wu Hao had “eaten up” their cousin so cleanly.
He looked like such a proper, serious person. Clearly, you really can’t judge people by their appearance.
She couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked in a small voice, “You and cousin… when did you start dating?”
Wu Hao had just reached for another duck leg when he heard her question. His arm shook, and he answered in a tiny voice, almost too quiet to hear.
“About seven or eight years ago.”
Seven or eight years ago… At that time, An Han had only been in middle school, and Wu Hao had just been in high school.
Since he answered, she got excited and leaned forward, whispering with bright eyes, “How did you even do that? That’s amazing~”
“So you knew back then that cousin was adopted by Auntie?”
“How did you bring yourself to do it~?”
The more she asked, the more excited she became. Her eyes were glowing, full of gossip flames.
Wu Hao’s face turned red like a pig’s liver. He finally couldn’t hold it in and fought back.
“Then why did you turn into a girl?”
All of An Han’s gossip energy instantly disappeared. She shrank like a scared quail and mumbled, “Okay, I won’t ask anymore…”
If you really compared them, her issue was definitely bigger.
It was just that her issue had already happened, while Wu Hao’s problem could still be stopped. That was why the aunts and uncles didn’t have time to bother with her for now.