208. Bewildered Brother
“Ning Chu, why don’t you take a few days off?”
“Huh?”
During lunch, their mother, eyes glued to the TV show on her phone, peeled shrimp for her two sons while explaining, “There’s a lot going on. I’m worried you won’t have time to manage everything this weekend.”
Ning Chu felt a tug in her heart. After finally getting the chance to experience the warmth of home again, she was hesitant to leave.
But just a day later, she was starting to miss Wen Yang…
There really was a lot going on in those days. Her mother wanted to take her to get a girl’s hairstyle, shop for women’s clothes, and throw her a birthday party.
At the same time, they needed to go to a big hospital for a health check and change her ID back in the countryside.
Heading back to school by Sunday evening meant she’d have to wrap everything up in just a day and a half—thinking about it made her tired.
“Is it just a birthday? What’s the big deal?” Ning Yuan couldn’t hold it in any longer and interjected, “Are you two hiding something from me?”
He lifted his head and looked at the two at the dining table. His younger brother was looking down, appearing shy, and their mother shot him a meaningful smile.
After peeling shrimp, their mother placed the cleaned ones in a dish, only for Ning Chu to snatch them all up in an instant, leaving nothing behind.
“Leave two for your brother.”
“Oh~”
Ning Chu was in heaven, hands full of half a giant blue crab, a few mantis shrimp in her bowl, and a plate of seafood noodles before her.
“Ning Yuan.” Their mother directed her gentle gaze toward him, smiling as she asked, “Would you like to have a little sister?”
“No way.”
“Why not? Isn’t having a sister nice?”
Ning Yuan sighed: “Mom, you’re in your forties. Are you planning to have another child? Aren’t you afraid something might go wrong?”
“Not having one, just asking.”
Now, he looked even more serious: “Mom, if you find a stepdad, I’ll just call him Uncle at most. If he has a daughter, it doesn’t matter as long as she’s not too young. I can’t stand kids.”
“Where did that come from?”
“I think you should find someone… Your younger brother is going to university, and no one is around to keep you company.”
Their mother’s smile stiffened a bit. How did this conversation turn from discussing Ning Chu to her?
She glanced at Ning Chu, only to see her younger son stifling laughs.
Wait, no! That’s her daughter now.
“After lunch, give it an hour, and we’re going out to get your hair done.”
“Mom…” Now it was Ning Chu’s turn to object. She looked a bit distressed as she explained, “No, I’m living in a dorm now.”
Mentioning the dorm, their mother’s face darkened.
A succubus living in a boys’ dorm? She couldn’t even begin to imagine the scene.
It would be a wild party every night! By the end of the year, who knows whose child it might be?
From a succubus’s perspective, it sounds heavenly. From a mother’s viewpoint, she just wanted to twist the heads of all Ning Chu’s dorm mates off.
“Get out of there, pronto!”
“Oh…”
Ning Chu shrank back, realizing her mother completely misunderstood, and couldn’t help but explain: “They don’t know. I hide it very well.”
“Well, you still have to move!”
“Alright!”
She had already planned to move out with her family’s support, so there was no resistance on her part.
But Ning Yuan was even more perplexed.
What on earth are they talking about?! He didn’t understand a single word!
His younger brother was living fine in the boys’ dorm; why did he have to move out?
“Finished eating, I’m off to play on the computer.”
Ning Chu watched Ning Yuan leave the table, thinking he must be headed to his bedroom, then turned to her mother and said, “Mom, just a little trim will do. No dyeing or perming needed.”
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to look nice?”
“In the eyes of my classmates, I’m still a boy, you know…”
Getting a feminine hairstyle might lead to being mistaken for a trap when she returned to school. Who knows, the instructor might even have something to say about it.
Her mother relented: “Alright, fine. When your ID is updated, I’ll help you change your student record at school.”
“Yeah.”
Even changing her ID, even the expedited service would take a week. Changing gender information? That would definitely take longer.
She prepared herself for possibly living off-campus for the next month or two.
After finishing her seafood noodles, Ning Chu was so full that she burped, covering her slightly round belly as she stood up: “I’m off to the computer too~”
She hadn’t eaten this much in a long time, and now her stomach was a little uncomfortable.
Slowly making her way to Ning Yuan’s room, she dragged over a chair from the corner and plopped down beside her brother.
A faint girl’s fragrance wafted over, and Ning Yuan turned to see Ning Chu sitting next to him.
“Want to play?”
“Go ahead, I’m just watching.”
Their home only had one computer, and they often argued over who got to use it.
Ning Yuan was distractedly playing a game, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, he asked, “Are you hiding something from Mom and me? Spill it.”
“Um…”
“And why did you suddenly stop living in the dorm? Did a roommate bully you?”
“No, not at all.”
He put down the mouse, again looking at his younger brother, now sporting a delicate yet alluring face. He frowned, his tone slightly impatient: “Stop dodging, just say it.”
Seeing her brother getting a bit angry, Ning Chu shrank back slightly, resting a foot on the chair, hugging her knees as she whispered, “It’s… about what Mom asked you.”
She didn’t want to keep hiding it anymore; besides, Ning Yuan had already noticed enough details and she worried too much distance would grow between them.
“Is she really trying to find us a stepdad?!”
“No… it’s about your sister.” Ning Chu looked down, her face flushed.
“???”
“I’m now… a girl.”
Ning Yuan’s eyes widened in shock: “What the heck! You want to be a woman? Mom wouldn’t really agree to that, right? Does she have the money for your surgery?”
“Not wanting to be a woman… I already am one.”
Confessing was always a kind of mental torture.
This left Ning Chu feeling drained, she sighed: “You’ll see when my health check results come out.”
“……”
Ning Yuan looked at his younger brother in disbelief, never having scrutinized Ning Chu so seriously before—from head to toe, from general to detail.
She really did look like a pretty girl; if she dressed up a bit, she could even pass for a soon-to-be star.
Sister…
Although he had his suspicions, the most outrageous one was that his brother had some sort of gender dysphoria and wanted surgery to become a girl, but the truth was even more absurd—after a few months, his brother had actually turned into a girl.
His lip twitched—no matter how young he was, even he couldn’t instantly accept this, and he really couldn’t fathom how their mother accepted the idea of motherhood at lightning speed.
Now he understood why Ning Chu had clung to their mother and cried as soon as she got home.
Ning Yuan sighed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, no longer playing the game, he quietly stood up from the computer, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.
He leaned back against the wall, gazing at Ning Chu and her awkward sitting posture.
Is she trying to prank me?
But he glanced at the strap of her underwear peeking out from her shoulder.
Not possible, right? Would a prank really require such sacrifices? Ning Chu wouldn’t do something like that.
Ning Yuan remained silent, lowering his head to search on his phone: “What to do if your brother suddenly becomes your sister?”
