054. Are You Really a Girl?
Wu Guodong had his own life, and Lin Nan didn’t want to trouble him too much. After all, this wasn’t their childhood anymore; back then, Wu Guodong was just a student, not like today where he was working 996 every day.
The next day, the two of them had a nice lunch, and around two in the afternoon, Lin Nan returned to the dormitory.
The first thing Lin Nan did upon entering was to bring back the cola, which he’d entrusted his roommate to look after, and after tending to it with food, water, and cleaning duties, he crawled into bed with the warm pad his uncle had given him.
Ah, nothing beats your own blanket.
Though his uncle’s quilt had been washed, it had spent too long in the smoky chaos of life, and that faint smell of smoke had surely seeped into the cotton. It was a lingering scent that was just plain uncomfortable.
His stomach felt much better. Since last night, Lin Nan had resolutely avoided hot water, sticking to warm water instead, and using the heating pad. The pain in his lower belly had diminished significantly compared to last night, though there was still a strange emptiness and an inexplicable restlessness bubbling up.
This impatience had actually started last night, but he was too busy writhing in pain to notice.
After tossing and turning all night without much sleep, now that he was back in the comfort of his own bed, he was snoozing within ten minutes flat.
When he woke up, it was already dark outside.
With some confusion, Lin Nan poked his head out from under the blankets only to be met with sharp pain in his abdomen. He glanced at the air conditioner and discovered it had been set to a frosty 16 degrees.
He distinctly remembered not turning it on when he got back.
Thanks to a night of very little sleep, even the nap he managed in the afternoon wasn’t enough to clear his head—he felt like his brain had turned to mush. Propping himself up with one hand while the other clutched his stomach, he looked a bit pale.
“Awake?”
A familiar voice suddenly came from under his bed, jolting Lin Nan back to reality. He leaned over to see Chen Yao sitting at his desk, meticulously studying the medical examination report.
Lin Nan was instantly at a loss for words, awkwardness flooding his senses.
What to do about this?
A large part of why he’d confessed to Chen Yao back then was because he couldn’t sleep and felt fuzzy-headed. He regretted it the moment the words left his mouth, but Chen Yao had been glued to his phone, not giving Lin Nan a chance to backtrack.
But still, sharing the burden of that heavy month had indeed felt liberating.
“Can you turn the AC off?” Lin Nan decided to play dumb for now, avoiding the subject. “My stomach hurts.”
“No wonder you didn’t have the AC on when I came back and were wrapped in blankets. I thought you might be hot, so I turned it on.” Chen Yao casually switched the AC off and placed the medical report back in Lin Nan’s drawer. “You should keep this locked up; don’t let the other two see it.”
“Got it.”
Lin Nan took a deep breath, nervously hoping Chen Yao wouldn’t pursue the topic further.
But clearly, Chen Yao wasn’t sure how to handle the situation either.
The cold air in the room began to dissipate, and Lin Nan attempted a groggy escape from his bed, clutching his stomach.
Having Chen Yao around surprisingly put Lin Nan at ease. He wasn’t jumping at every little noise like when he lived alone; instead, the odd creaks and groans of the dormitory were easily filtered out by his brain.
After a pit stop in the bathroom, he found himself, like yesterday, experiencing bl**d in his urine, but he had grown accustomed to the alarming dark red color. He flushed it casually and stepped out to find Chen Yao on the balcony, puffing away at a cigarette.
“What are you smoking for?”
Chen Yao didn’t usually smoke or have any cravings for it, so it was strange to see him lighting up today.
Flashing Lin Nan a smile, he didn’t elaborate, yet he looked unusually troubled.
Lin Nan couldn’t grasp what was weighing on Chen Yao’s mind, but with him, conversation felt awkward.
Chen Yao threw the extinguished b*tt into the bathroom and glanced back, noticing what seemed to be a bit of dark red at the edge of the toilet.
Could it be… period bl**d?
He froze for a moment, unsure what to make of it, then walked out to look at Lin Nan, who was still clutching his stomach, and asked, “Is your stomach hurting again?”
“Uh-huh.” Lin Nan’s face was pale, still holding his stomach.
“Is it… Aunt Flo again?” Chen Yao’s face turned a shade more awkward, his eyes involuntarily darting away.
“Guess so.” Lin Nan let out a long sigh, acting all dramatic, “I can’t use cold water right now, and I have no idea how to do laundry.”
“I can help you wash it.” Chen Yao leaned against the railing, still uncertain how to broach the main topic.
The air between them was thick with awkwardness; they couldn’t quite look at each other. Lin Nan’s mouth twitched, and he turned to retreat to his bed for a while.
Just then, Chen Yao pressed onward, “Is your situation… what do they call it online? Some kind of deformity?”
Looks like he did his homework before coming here.
Lin Nan couldn’t explain the magic-related stuff, so he opted for the most scientific reasoning and nodded, “That’s what the doctor said.”
“Didn’t your mom have a checkup while pregnant with you?”
Lin Nan froze.
“Or there must’ve been a checkup when you were born? How come you’re only finding out now…?”
Lin Nan’s expression went blank.
“Normally, a situation like yours should have been corrected with surgery when you were little, right?”
Yeah, sure, if he told his parents that, it wouldn’t add up at all. If he remembered correctly, they’d said he was a preemie and spent quite some time in an incubator, so there’s no way there were no examinations.
But he could still pull one over Chen Yao.
“I lived in the countryside until I was in elementary school. It’s understandable if my parents didn’t know much about it, right? Maybe I was delivered by a midwife and never even went to a hospital?”
“True,” Chen Yao acknowledged, the last remnants of confusion swiftly evaporating.
Lin Nan was afraid he wouldn’t be able to answer any following questions, so he beat a hasty retreat back to his bed.
Nonetheless, Chen Yao was still deeply contemplative over Lin Nan’s condition. As he racked his brains, he realized Lin Nan hadn’t appeared particularly feminine in the past, nor had he gone through anything resembling a period before.
It was just within the last month? More precisely, since that high fever and hospitalization, Lin Nan had seemed a bit off.
But if it really were some “deformity,” it would imply Lin Nan was, in essence, a girl. If that were the case, it was perfectly understandable that he kept mistaking Lin Nan for a girl. It could be viewed as having a keen eye, right?
He stepped back into the room and glanced up at Lin Nan, curled up on the bed with only his head poking out.
“How about another checkup tomorrow?” he suggested.
“Forget it.”
Chen Yao knew Lin Nan didn’t want to go back to the hospital. After a brief pause, he asked, “Are you… really a girl?”
“…..”
