05. The Lady
This might just be the very first time Ning Chu felt so nervous before getting in the shower.
She opened the wardrobe, reached for a fresh short-sleeve shirt and shorts, and then hesitated there like a deer in headlights.
Now that she’s a girl and with Wen Yang, who knows her secrets and might just be part of her plot, showering in the dormitory didn’t seem like the brightest idea.
But going to a hotel for a shower… yeah, that was way off the mark.
She looked down at her legs.
Ever since she got her new accessories, she’d instinctively been avoiding them, only giving them a hasty wipe when she used the bathroom, let alone any deep research or educational thoughts on them.
“Ning Chu, wanna duo queue?” Wang Jie casually turned around to ask, “I’ll take you to victory.”
“I’m going to shower.”
Ning Chu lowered her eyebrows, let out a long sigh, and hugged her change of clothes to her chest.
Grabbing a towel from the other side of the wardrobe, she walked towards the balcony bathroom like she was heading to the execution grounds.
Inside the bathroom, there was a half-body mirror stuck to the tiles, probably left behind by some senior, its surface a bit cloudy from age.
Ning Chu hung her clothes up high and wiped the mirror, trying her best to make the reflection clearer.
Leaning in so close her nose almost touched the glass, she scrutinized her face.
Overall, her face still looked rather youthful, oval-shaped with soft and smooth lines. At first glance, she appeared to be a well-behaved and cute young girl. But her eyes, shaped like peach blossoms, had delicate outer corners and a faint reddish blush around them, giving her a pitiable yet alluring look.
She looked like a fifteen or sixteen-year-old middle school girl, but with nightclub makeup slapped on.
“So ugly…”
Ning Chu mumbled, struggling to accept her appearance.
She looked just like a green tea fox spirit!
She turned around and checked the bathroom door again, making sure it was locked, then grabbed a cleaning mop from the corner and wedged it against the door.
After thoroughly checking for safety, she took a deep breath and stripped off her clothes.
Her upper body looked pretty much the same as before—delicate arms, narrow shoulders, a slim waist, and a belly with a long, slender navel.
The size of her chest hadn’t changed much; it still looked petite and cute, though it seemed the hue had spread a bit.
After taking off her pants, she stepped back two paces, tightly closing her legs but still leaving a little triangle gap in between.
She raised her head, looking at the n*ked girl in the mirror.
What a stranger…
Who is this?
From a little boy to a young lady, it seemed like she had gone through a lot, yet not much time had passed.
In the blink of an eye, the person she once was had become unrecognizable.
Her hand unconsciously grazed the mirror, touching the face of the woman reflected back, feeling as if she had replaced the original Ning Chu of this world.
A chill crept over her heart as she struggled to control her breathing, fearing she might faint again in her n*ked state.
Her gaze shifted away from the mirror; she still chose to avoid it, just as she hadn’t taken any pictures in the past two months…
Embarrassing, but effective.
The warm water poured over her, yet it didn’t alleviate the coldness within; she felt a panic pressing down on her chest, her hand holding the showerhead shaking slightly.
A quick lather of body wash over her entire body, intentionally dodging her new accessories.
Ten minutes in front of the mirror, and the shower lasted a mere three minutes.
Ning Chu walked out of the bathroom with dripping wet hair, silently tossing her dirty clothes into the basin to soak, leaning her elbows on the railing, looking up at the pitch-black sky.
Speaking of which, during her boyhood, his appearance was actually about eighty percent similar to his past life, or rather, he looked like his middle school self.
In his previous life, he started developing and breaking out with acne in middle school, ruining his once cute boyish face. After crossing over, although for some unknown reason, he still hadn’t developed and retained the boyish image in his freshman year, he knew his final height would be 175 cm.
Originally, he had been confidently waiting to develop, only to end up becoming a girl.
“Why aren’t you coming inside?”
Having spaced out for who knows how long, she heard Zhang Shaoqing’s voice call from behind.
“Just stargazing.”
“Stargazing? What kind of stars are there?”
Zhang Shaoqing rushed into the bathroom, and less than half a minute later, he hurriedly dashed back into the room, clearly the game was still ongoing.
Not long after, Wen Yang appeared with clothes ready for a shower, but his steps halted at the balcony.
He looked at Ning Chu, who was leaning on the railing, staring at the sky, and asked, “What’s up? Feeling down?”
“I’m okay, just a bit… melancholic.”
The bad mood from earlier faded away with his quiet company.
“Melancholic?” Wen Yang took a couple of steps forward, leaning against the railing beside Ning Chu to look at the night sky. “Who upset you?”
“I was just thinking, what’s going to happen in the future?”
Ning Chu lamented with a furrowed brow, “This world is so dangerous…”
Even if she successfully disrupted the plot in the book, she still had to live the rest of her life in a world where, without the main character’s protection, she could easily become an NPC with a bad ending… it sent shivers down her spine!
But Yan Xinya, and so many other girls, never had the main character’s protection either. Why were they fine? Because they weren’t plot characters? Maybe if she completely destroyed all the plots, severing ties with her identity as a side character, all the dangers around her would just vanish?
But before that…
She glanced at Wen Yang, deep in thought.
“What’s wrong?” Wen Yang looked puzzled, “It’s not dangerous; the security here is fine, you only run into a couple of bad guys now and then, don’t overthink it.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Ning Chu nodded perfunctorily and then asked, “What if you gave me something as a talisman?”
The blessing of the main character for protection! Surely that main character halo could give her a 30% refund, right?
As for clinging to Wen Yang, going from classmates to colleagues to neighbors… while that was doable, the feasibility was just too low.
She had more outrageous thoughts but pushed those aside entirely.
“Superstitious.” He rummaged through his pockets, finding them empty, and then handed her a sleep shirt, saying, “Here, take this shirt.”
“Will this work?”
“Definitely not.”
But Ning Chu still grabbed the sleep shirt, throwing it over her shoulder: “What if it does work?”
Wen Yang was baffled: “Wait, don’t you have sleepwear?”
“That set? I… tossed it out.”
The sleepwear was so sheer that being braless in them was just too eye-catching. After trying out a few, Ning Chu tossed them all.
Now she used a loose, comfortable outfit as her sleepwear.
Maybe it was psychological, but after draping Wen Yang’s sleep shirt over her, she genuinely felt a bit more at ease and comfy.
Wen Yang really didn’t get it, scratching his head in confusion, completely baffled as to why after just a couple of chats with Ning Chu, his sleep shirt became hers.
What was this? A roundabout way to ask for a gift?
He suddenly understood, then fell into deep thought, walking into the bathroom for a shower, lost in contemplation.
What should he give Ning Chu?
