117. Uncle, You’re a Bit Weak【2/90】
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Wu Guodong never thought he’d encounter such a bizarre gender-related condition, and especially not in his own nephew.
He hesitated as he looked at Lin Nan. If he really racked his brain, he could almost recall a rather pretty face from Lin Nan’s childhood that resembled a girl’s.
Even though he wasn’t sure if his memory was playing tricks on him, Wu Guodong chose to trust Lin Nan’s words because, well, these kinds of things don’t just pop up out of thin air. A quick call to Lin Nan’s mother would clear everything up.
Not fully grasping this condition, he took advantage of the fact Lin Nan was absorbed in his game to dive into some online articles about it.
The more Wu Guodong read, the more alarmed he became. Those unfortunate souls diagnosed with deformities at birth or during childhood seemed to have a relatively normal life; but for cases like Lin Nan—who discovered the issue only upon reaching adulthood, or even when it was time to tie the knot—it was just straight-up tragic.
He let out a gentle sigh, looking at Lin Nan, who now didn’t appear much different from a woman, and felt that it wasn’t as uncomfortable as he thought.
He wanted to offer some words of encouragement, but if he were in Lin Nan’s shoes, he realized he wouldn’t immediately accept the idea of “surprise, you’re actually a girl!”—let alone any dude with a sane mind.
“Wait until winter break. Are you really going to get the surgery?”
Lin Nan froze for a moment. If the whole Lilith thing would resurrect him as a full-on woman, then sure, he’d be on board with the surgery.
After all, no one wants their body to get replaced by someone else for no reason.
“Yeah.” He felt a bit guilty, avoiding Wu Guodong’s gaze and attempting to shift the topic. “What about the delivery? Why hasn’t it arrived yet?”
“Just ordered it five minutes ago.” Wu Guodong thought Lin Nan was just stalling to avoid admitting he didn’t want the surgery. He wanted to lecture a little, but then remembered that if this were happening to him, he might react worse than Lin Nan. In the end, he opened his mouth but couldn’t get the words out.
Lin Nan’s mother had probably lectured him enough—more wouldn’t do anything but annoy him.
Wu Guodong stood up, ready to grab a cola from the fridge, when he suddenly remembered Lin Nan’s stomachache from the other day. He paused, spun around, and asked, “Your stomach was hurting the other day; it’s not your period, is it?”
“…..” Lin Nan hesitated, then shook his head like crazy. “Definitely not! If it were, my mom would have dragged me to the hospital already. There’s no way I’d be here listening to you babble!”
“Your mom probably doesn’t know about this, right?”
Wu Guodong eyed Lin Nan skeptically. Lin Nan feigned calmness and fixed his gaze on the TV screen.
“It was just a normal stomachache. I ate something bad.” Lin Nan sighed dramatically, sounding quite troubled. “I had just bought a computer with a classmate, and we hadn’t gotten our family allowance yet. Right before coming here, I had this old bread—maybe it went bad or something.”
“Shouldn’t you have felt the pain right after eating it?” Wu Guodong wasn’t dumb; he studied Lin Nan’s innocent, blinking eyes and tried his best to look serious instead of getting lost in his nephew’s cuteness. “It’s your body, and if something goes wrong, it’s all on you, got it?”
“Got it, got it.”
Seeing Lin Nan’s dismissive attitude made Wu Guodong feel a bit riled up, but he couldn’t vent it out, pacing back and forth in the living room.
Lin Nan understood his concern but genuinely didn’t know how to clarify things.
“I know my body, and I’ve had a full check-up. I’m fine.” Lin Nan turned to comfort the frustrated Wu Guodong. “Don’t be mad; I’m thinking it over.”
“Well, you must go back during winter break and get that surgery!”
“Mm.”
Hearing Lin Nan’s reply eased Wu Guodong’s ire a bit. He went to the fridge, pulled out two colas, and set them on the coffee table. “Just pretend you didn’t get your period; otherwise, I’d need to boil some water for you.”
Finally seeing Lin Nan calm down a little, he relaxed too.
The grilled fish delivery had also arrived. Lin Nan thought it would be a simple foil-wrapped package, but the delivery person brought an entire charcoal-grilled platter over.
“Remember to open a window for ventilation, and call me afterward for the pick-up.”
The delivery person set the platter on the table, muttered those two sentences, and rushed off, leaving Lin Nan utterly bewildered—he’d never seen takeaway fish like this before.
Is takeaway this high-end now?
“Dig in! Lunch like this means dinner can be simple.”
“Mm-mm!” Lin Nan really liked grilled fish but had only eaten it a couple of times in his life—usually just during gatherings. In his mind, food and money were tied for first place on his priority list. With a monthly allowance of a thousand, he’d spend over nine hundred on food alone. If the allowance was three thousand, it would still be calculated as a hundred bucks a day for meals.
Taking a bite of grilled fish paired with ice-cold cola, Lin Nan let out a deep sigh of contentment. Living at Uncle Wu’s felt like a slice of heaven.
Video games, delicious food, and a chance to be a sloth—what’s not to love?
On the other hand, Wu Guodong sat next to him and raised an eyebrow. That sigh sounded downright sensual to him; almost like a girl’s m*an—it was quite the distraction.
With only one sofa in the room, he had no choice but to scoot closer to Lin Nan as he savored the grilled fish. At this proximity, he could smell the rich aroma of grilled fish mixed with a hint of Lin Nan’s baby powder scent.
Uninvited memories of Lin Nan’s sleeping face floated up in his mind…
The blanket on the sofa had already been messed up by Lin Nan, so Wu Guodong simply tugged it over his legs.
“Do you only cover half of yourself with the blanket, too?” Lin Nan noticed Wu Guodong’s familiar behavior and turned to ask in surprise, “I have a roommate who does the same.”
“Really?” Wu Guodong was momentarily at a loss for words.
Should he warn Lin Nan not to get too close to his roommate? But that seemed more like burying his head in the sand.
He could only try his hardest to ignore Lin Nan and focused on munching away at the grilled fish and rice. Still, the faint scent of baby powder kept sneaking into his nose.
“My feet are just a bit cold.” Wu Guodong grabbed a reason even he didn’t believe in.
“In this heat, how can your feet be cold?” Lin Nan looked down at his uncle’s exposed calves from his shorts, exclaiming, “Uncle, you’re not even thirty yet, and you’re already weak!”
If you weren’t my nephew, I’d pin you down on this sofa and show you who’s weak!
Wu Guodong raged internally but kept his face all warm and tender as an uncle should. “I just do a lot of overtime at work. You haven’t seen my colleagues; their hairlines are retreating faster than a magician’s rabbit, and their health? Disastrous!”
