Chapter 28: Sixteen-Year Limit · Special Edition of the Enchanting and Cheap Wang Meili
Waking up every morning to see a beautiful girl is a joyful thing.
When the confounding puzzles in her heart finally begin to become clear, that is also a joyful thing.
When two joyful things intertwine, it should bring even greater happiness, but…
If the price is turning into a beautiful girl, then “d*mn” it.
In the bathroom, Lu Yibei stared blankly at the girl in the mirror, her eyes twitching uncontrollably.
Although she had experienced something similar in her dream memories, she still found it hard to accept when such a situation occurred in the “real” world.
“d*mn! You want me to get used to this, don’t you?” Lu Yibei muttered quietly, and then her eyes dimmed, as if overshadowed by a layer of dark clouds.
Her body had truly undergone a “miraculous” transformation just as it had in her dream memories, further proving the authenticity of those memories.
It also meant that everything she had experienced with Mrs. Wang Meili and Nanling Yaohua over the past eighteen years was gradually drifting away from her, turning into illusions.
This was the thing she couldn’t accept the most, transforming from a mighty man into a beautiful girl upon waking up.
At that moment, as Lu Yibei pondered life’s uncertainties and yearned for the past, her mind suddenly burst with intense pain.
The sharp pain felt like a hard, sharp object stabbing into her temple and wildly churning within her head, unbearable and torturous.
The abrupt pain turned her face pale, and her body swayed. She hurriedly propped herself on the sink to avoid collapsing from the pain.
Accompanied by the stabbing pain in her brain, the strange noise she had heard before in her dreams echoed in her ears once again.
With a slight burning sensation in her eyes, the light and shadows seemed to twist, the various colors within her vision becoming more vibrant, the dark ones deepening further.
The noise in her ears intensified, causing a sense of confusion. Just as Lu Yibei felt she was about to go mad, amidst the cacophony, she suddenly heard a woman’s soft whisper.
The voice was very faint, very distant, and indistinct. She concentrated desperately to listen but could only catch fragments.
“…Everything that the sun and moon shine upon, and the wind and rain reach, must obey.”
Was this a description of some urban legend’s power? Lu Yibei made this judgment.
Originally, her memory regarding the powers of urban legends was only vaguely present in her dream memories, like it was shrouded in thick fog, impossible to see clearly.
However, as she captured that fragment of speech, the fog covering that segment of memory seemed to be blown away by the wind, and everything became clear.
“Holy cr*p! What I chanted in the Banshan Apartment yesterday was actually a description of the power controlling marriage and childbirth?” Lu Yibei lowered her head to look at her abdomen, breathing in sharply. “Oh no, she wouldn’t respond to me and then bestow a child upon me, would she?”
As she worried about whether the unknown deity would notice her existence, that incomplete description of power unexpectedly echoed in her mind again.
“…Everything that the sun and moon shine upon, and the wind and rain reach, must obey.”
In an instant, it felt like something within her was awakened, her heart racing suddenly, as if her bl**d were boiling, flowing through her body in a torrent, making her feel unbearably hot. Her fair skin gradually developed a drunken rosy hue, and for a moment, she was drenched in fragrant sweat.
The abnormality in her body lasted for about three seconds, and as the noise faded back into silence, the restless bl**d inside Lu Yibei seemed to settle down as if nothing had occurred.
“…”
With such arrogance in the description of power, I’m afraid it’s never been covered with a burlap sack before? Feeling her still racing heart, Lu Yibei thought secretly.
A few seconds later, when the chaotic light and shadow before her completely dissipated, she raised her head and looked at the mirror, slightly stunned.
The girl in the mirror wore an oversized T-shirt that hung loosely, revealing her rounded, fragrant shoulders, and her long legs peeked out from beneath the shirt’s hem, creating a rather enchanting image.
Her complexion was a bit pale but displayed a jade-like translucence; her facial features were soft, her nose perfectly shaped and beautiful.
In her strikingly bright eyes, the corners were slightly raised, adding a hint of seductive charm to her innocence; her thin lips seemed to echo the light pink of her long hair, adorned with a hint of cherry blossom color.
“Wait a minute…” Lu Yibei paused for a moment, squinting her eyes. “Why has the color of my hair changed? And this face…”
It felt familiar yet somehow strange.
As she pondered, she suddenly raised an eyebrow and hurriedly left the bathroom, rushing into Mrs. Wang Meili’s bedroom.
Upon seeing Mrs. Wang Meili’s artistic photo hanging on the wall, she felt as if struck by lightning, her body trembling slightly.
In an instant, Mrs. Wang Meili’s face and the girl in the mirror merged in Lu Yibei’s mind with an overlap of 88.8721%. The only difference was that Mrs. Wang Meili had a bit more heroism in her brows, while the girl had a more enchanting feel.
Such a high degree of similarity was essentially Mrs. Wang Meili’s “Sixteen-Year Limit · Special Edition,” and if it were said that they weren’t related by bl**d, she probably wouldn’t have believed it.
“d*mn! This is ridiculous! If Mom comes back and sees me like this, she’d definitely… be very happy, right?”
Lu Yibei muttered with a bitter expression, already imagining the scene where the untrustworthy Mrs. Wang Meili discovered she had given birth and would joyfully open her wallet, taking her shopping for women’s clothes.
Lu Yibei still remembered that when she was little, she excitedly went shopping with Mrs. Wang Meili and Xiao Hua during the New Year, only to end up tragically being a pack mule while the two ladies acquired clothes and shoes all day.
As half a daughter, Nanling Yaohua enjoyed such treatment, so if it were a biological daughter, wouldn’t it be a super double?
Thinking of this, Lu Yibei felt a pain in her head and rubbed her aching temples.
It felt like all the lost little dresses, lipsticks, and pretty little shoes from the past eighteen years were all suddenly compensated; every single day of the 365 days a year, each day with a different outfit—this kind of thing…
Lu Yibei believed Mrs. Wang Meili was definitely capable of doing it.
The emptiness in the inner world of a single widow for nineteen years was unimaginable to ordinary people; otherwise, she wouldn’t have taken the trouble to earn so many pointless certificates to fill her spiritual void.
“But… I should be able to return to normal before Mom comes back, right?” Lu Yibei murmured, pulling at her own skin.
Thinking about how Mrs. Wang Meili was still in Alaska playing with king crabs and wouldn’t return to ruin her life for a while, she felt slightly more at ease.
She remembered that in the dream memories, there was a setting stating “bathing in the morning sunlight can restore normalcy.”
Probably by tomorrow morning, if she woke up before sunrise and basked in the sun, everything would be fine, right?
It can’t be that all other settings work, but this one doesn’t, right? Lu Yibei thought.
“Perhaps, temporarily becoming like this isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe…”
Lu Yibei lifted her gaze to the figure in the mirror, narrowing her eyes slightly.
With an abandoned factory with huge chimneys and a group of strange figures that kidnapped Gu Qiqi, her intuition told her that the scenes she had seen in her dreams were definitely related to the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society and the notebook found in Banshan Apartment that recorded the methods to enter the real world.
Even Gu Qiqi becoming that kind of ghostly state, invisible to everyone but her, was likely due to something that had happened in that factory.
Lu Yibei felt that the ability beyond common understanding appearing in her dream memories might be accessible now with the strange changes in her body, perhaps a good thing.
In that case, while searching for that abandoned factory and the members of the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society, if she encountered monsters like the Mad Old Man again, she wouldn’t be so helpless.
Thinking this, Lu Yibei lowered her gaze to her fair and delicate hands, pondered briefly, and then followed the spell from her dream memories, whispering.
“Desolate wilderness, straw, remains, fan the fire with the wind…”
As she chanted the spell, she suddenly felt something indescribable within her become active, and a red flame quickly ignited at her fingertips.
Following that, the flame expanded rapidly with visible speed, getting larger and larger, bigger and…
Wait! Isn’t this the simplest spell from the dream memory? Why does it feel a bit off?
Feeling the alarming heat from the massive fireball at her fingertips, Lu Yibei was shocked, her expression gradually turning fearful. She hurriedly shook her hand, trying to flick the fireball away and stop its continued expansion.
However, that fireball seemed to be glued to her fingertip, unmoving, continuing to swell like it was being inflated.
The blazing flame, swaying recklessly, appeared to be grinning wickedly at her, “Woman! You started this fire; now I’m on a high and can’t stop!”
In the chaotic seconds that followed, the red fireball swelled until it completely obscured her reflection in the mirror.
Then…
“Boom—!”
The fireball shot out from her fingertip, engulfed in violent energy, exploding in the bathroom, causing the whole room to shake violently.
Tiles and mirrors shattered, metal plates from the ceiling tore apart, sharp fragments flying wildly like bullets in the bathroom.
After a few seconds.
Feeling as if her body had been drained, Lu Yibei collapsed in the midst of the wreckage in the bathroom, her gaze blankly staring at the ceiling.
Water gushed from the twisted and damaged pipes overhead like a torrential downpour, soaking her long, messy hair as it stuck to her face.
The oversized T-shirt seemed to have been slashed dozens of times with a kn*fe, full of finger-sized holes, and when dampened, it clung to her slim body, revealing her snowy skin.
At this moment, only then did the information regarding the Spirit Pattern talent skill break through the fog in Lu Yibei’s mind, gradually becoming clear.
Spirit Pattern Talent Skill [Spell Amplification], amplification multiplier, from 0.01 to 53.4 times…
Thus, Lu Yibei collapsed.
“d*mn it, why didn’t you say this earlier? d*mn it! If I had known, I wouldn’t have tried it at home!” She mumbled with a hint of a cry, banging her head.
“Now it’s like this—there’s no way to fix it before Mom comes back, right?”
At this moment, she deeply realized the importance of elders teaching children not to play with fire.
Will she wet the bed tonight? She didn’t know, but when Mrs. Wang Meili came back, she would definitely be in trouble.
————
The neighbors in the faculty housing area were all warm-hearted people.
With such a loud commotion coming from Lu Yibei’s house, and flames shooting more than two meters high from the bathroom window, they couldn’t possibly not care.
Soon, there was a knock at Lu Yibei’s door.
“Knock knock knock—knock knock knock—!”
“Xiao Bei? Are you home? What happened? It sounds like an explosion! Are you okay?”
Just as one wave subsided, another rose.
Hearing the knocking and Grandma Wang’s voice coming from the living room, Lu Yibei froze for a moment, her heart suddenly rising to her throat, and a flurry of thoughts rushed through her mind.
Oh no, if I don’t open the door now, with the noise just now, Grandma Wang will definitely call the fire department.
But if I go to open the door, Grandma Wang will see a girl she doesn’t recognize; who knows what kind of gossip will spread?!
If Grandma Wang finds out, all the grandmothers in the neighborhood will know; if all the grandmothers know, Xiao Hua will definitely find out…
How am I supposed to explain this to Xiao Hua? That I’m really Lu Yibei but after sleeping, my split personality affected my body, turning me into a girl?
As Lu Yibei pondered, an idea suddenly flashed in her mind. In an instant, her panicked expression regained calmness. She took a deep breath, got up, and walked toward Mrs. Wang Meili’s bedroom.
Then, she rummaged through Mrs. Wang Meili’s bathrobe, hastily putting it on. Before the feeling of shame could rise, she grabbed a facial mask from the dressing table and hurriedly ran towards the front door.
————
Three minutes later, at Lu Yibei’s front door.
After knocking for a moment and receiving no response, Grandma Wang’s kindly face showed a hint of worry. She then took out her elderly phone, preparing to dial the fire department.
Just then, the door to Lu Yibei’s house, with a “click,” opened.
“Xiao Bei, you finally opened the door. I thought—”
Grandma Wang said, raising her head to look behind the door. When she saw the person who opened the door, she was momentarily taken aback, her words cut off mid-sentence.
Standing behind the door was a woman wrapped in a bathrobe, with a facial mask on, whose facial features looked somewhat familiar.
“Is it Aunt Wang? Please come in and sit, come in!” Lu Yibei imitated her mother’s voice and tone.
Hearing the woman speak, Grandma Wang let out a sigh of relief and smiled as she waved her hand. “Oh, it’s Meili who’s back! You startled me!”
“I won’t go in and sit; I just wanted to ask you about your house…”
“Hey!” Lu Yibei turned to glance at the bathroom and pouted. “Isn’t it all that brat Lu Yibei’s mischief?”
“When I left, I noticed the water heater was acting up. I asked him to find someone to fix it, but all he does is play; he doesn’t do anything serious!”
“Just now, I had just finished showering and was coming out of the bathroom when the water heater exploded. Thankfully, I had gotten out, or the consequences would be unimaginable.”
“Since he’s not home now, when he comes back, I will have to teach him a lesson!” Lu Yibei said fiercely.
While speaking, she skillfully imitated Mrs. Wang Meili’s mannerisms, drawing from her years of experience getting scolded.
“This…” Grandma Wang looked around Lu Yibei’s house and then smiled wryly. “Haha, young guys do tend to be careless; don’t blame him too much.”
“Speaking of which, my two sons were just like that when they were young. They…”
Hearing this, Lu Yibei internally screamed “not good.”
These elders in the neighborhood were all wonderful; they were kind, amiable, and warm-hearted, but the only thing that gave headaches was their endless chatter.
Based on Lu Yibei’s past experience, once Grandma Wang started telling “family stories,” it would last at least two hours.
Mrs. Wang Meili was always adept at handling the elderly in the neighborhood, but…
I’m not my mom; I can’t do that! Lu Yibei thought bitterly.
————
One hour later.
Lu Yibei slumped on the sofa in the living room, peeling off the completely dried facial mask from her face and letting out a long sigh.
“Too terrifying…”
Grandma Wang was still as talkative as ever, going on from her sons’ eighth birthday to their eighteenth, showing no signs of stopping.
Considering her youngest son was already forty-eight years old, Lu Yibei had to use the pretense of fixing the water heater to unyieldingly stop Grandma Wang from continuing.
“Phew! Finally, it’s over. I can finally take a breather.” Lu Yibei propped her head, muttering.
However…
Fate always likes to play tricks on people; good fortune rarely arrived in pairs, and disasters never came alone.
Just as she relaxed, her phone in the bedroom rang.
Hurrying to the bedroom, she picked up the phone and, upon seeing the incoming call ID, fell into silence.
The call was from Nanling Yaohua, but she didn’t dare to answer.
After a minute of ringing, it finally fell silent. Lu Yibei waited a moment, gripping her phone, and then sent a message to Nanling Yaohua.
Lu Yibei: “Xiao Hua, is there something going on with the call? I just took a shower and didn’t see.”
Nanling Yaohua: “Hehe, it’s nothing much. I just wanted to ask when we’re going to meet to book the restaurant for our graduation dinner that we agreed on the day before yesterday. [Little rabbit face blushing expression]”
“…”
Did we agree on that the day before yesterday? This…
Uh, I guess we sort of did, right?
What am I supposed to do in this strange appearance now?!
Lu Yibei’s heart tightened as she stared at her phone screen, falling into silence.
