### 144. A Chance Encounter in the Cafeteria
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On Saturday noon, Lin Nan stood outside the inn with Chen Yao, watching Li Na saunter into some obscure alley.
Chen Yao had this completely bewildered look on his face and couldn’t figure out why on earth Li Na was heading for that alley. Lin Nan suspected that she might be off to another world or something.
Who knows when Li Na would be back? And what kind of “soulless body” she was talking about—how was that supposed to make its way into this world?
Let’s be real, a soulless body? Isn’t that basically just a corpse?!
Suddenly, Lin Nan felt a chill run down his spine, shivered a bit, and instinctively lurked behind Chen Yao.
“What’s wrong with you…” Chen Yao looked down at Lin Nan, who appeared to be a walking zombie with heavy dark circles under his eyes from staying up all night. He asked with genuine concern, “Did she do anything to you last night?”
“It was just a sleep… nothing more…”
Lin Nan shook his head helplessly, initially thinking about the risk of being exposed and hurriedly doing an invisibility spell, but Li Na also decided to wear her ‘bulletproof vest’ against his late-night revenge. In the end, it felt like Chen Yao was the real winner here.
At least he got to princess-carry me for a good ten minutes!
Why does it seem like I’m always on the losing end? The last time at the beach was a total loss, and now Chen Yao has profited from this princess-carry too.
“Better safe than sorry,” Chen Yao sighed in relief. He genuinely feared that Li Na might leave Lin Nan with some psychological scars or worse, that she was a real psycho.
But from Lin Nan’s situation, it seemed it was just an innocent snooze.
It looked like Li Na was simply teasing Lin Nan with her insider information. While it was just a prank, she could’ve dialed it back a notch.
If given the choice, he’d rather take the hit than Lin Nan!
Li Na’s loli face paired with that awesome figure—wow.
Lin Nan seemed a bit distracted, glancing at the pedestrians on the street and, as usual, feeling uneasy under their stares, so he looked down, his face slightly flushed.
At least that’s how it appeared to Chen Yao, while Lin Nan was just recalling that embarrassing princess-carry.
“Let’s hurry back to the dorm,” Lin Nan urged.
“Not eating out?”
“I’m broke…”
Having known Lin Nan for a while, Chen Yao immediately caught on that Lin Nan actually meant “you’re paying.”
“How about we grab a bite at the cafeteria, my treat?” he generously patted Lin Nan’s shoulder. “Order whatever you want! But I gotta crash once we’re back; I played Honor of Kings with Dong An all night.”
With a free meal on the table, Lin Nan happily followed Chen Yao to the cafeteria.
As they arrived, it was prime lunch hour. Though the weekend crowd at the cafeteria wasn’t as massive as during the week, it was still a sea of people. Lin Nan snagged a spot, while Chen Yao hustled off to the food line.
I wonder how Li Na’s adventure in the other world is going.
Previously, Li Na mentioned that magic varies with each person’s soul, and while Lin Nan’s magic was exceptionally similar to Lilith’s, she mistook him for Lilith when they first met but eventually figured things out.
Were those folks in the other world gonna notice the issues?
He did some quick math. If unlocking and using magic three times would turn him fully female, then he had two more chances to unlock new magic this semester, after which—bam!—he’d be a girl. To be honest, he was already like just a slight variation of a girl anyway, basically just an extra little Lin Nan.
But having that mini Lin Nan, at least he could still call himself a man in the dorms without a hitch. If he turned into a girl, though, his mentality would do a complete 180.
“One magic use for studying, yeah, I’ll unlock it when final review comes around… and the last one I’ll unlock the day before break. Once I’m a girl, I’ll have to visit the hospital for a little convincing session with a doctor to get a surgery cert…”
Lin Nan mumbled to himself, but that last part about charming the doctor felt a bit too humiliating.
Actually, he had sought out information on changing gender identity. First thing needed was a hospital certification, probably something like a diagnosis letter, then going to a notary to verify the document…
This step was the trickiest. Normally, if Lin Nan were just getting surgery, it would only waste a little time, but now he had no idea what magic would convince both the hospital and the notary.
If only he had the same magic Li Na used last night that made anyone comply just by a glare…
“What are you zoning out about?” Chen Yao returned with his tray, having run for a second helping, and plopped down right across from Lin Nan.
Looking utterly drained, all night worrying about Lin Nan had him finally relaxing a little. He took a few bites of food, his head slowly drooping down, before suddenly jolting awake and lifting his head.
Lin Nan felt a pang of guilt towards Chen Yao, added to the embarrassment from being princess-carried a few days prior, and modestly kept his head down, avoiding eye contact.
“Chen Yao.”
Suddenly, a voice chimed in. Both turned to see the counselor, also grabbing a meal in the cafeteria.
“Director Zheng?” Chen Yao didn’t seem surprised. After all, as the sports committee member, he was vocal in class, and the counselor frequently roped him into helping out.
The counselor sat down next to Chen Yao, glancing at Lin Nan with curiosity, and said, “You’ve gotten prettier since I saw you a few days ago. Did you start wearing makeup?”
“Nope.” Lin Nan, unfamiliar with him, continued eating with his head down.
Since unlocking the invisibility spell, Lin Nan’s roommates hadn’t noticed any difference, but the counselor seemed to sense something was off.
Not bothered by Lin Nan’s aloofness—he didn’t usually engage much with students anyway—had it not been for his curiosity about why Lin Nan, as a boy, could look so much like a pretty girl, he wouldn’t have bothered starting a conversation.
Turning back to Chen Yao, he instructed, “Later, you go to my office and take the physical exam forms back to the dorm. Make sure they don’t lose them; if lost, they’ll need to find a clean copy themselves.”
“Got it.” Chen Yao nodded.
“You two are roommates, right?” The counselor cast a glance at Lin Nan, frowned, and quietly asked Chen Yao, “He wouldn’t have any psychological issues, would he? I remember he wasn’t like this last semester.”
Even though he hadn’t been a counselor for long, he remembered a colleague from last year whose student committed s*icide, displaying odd behaviors and reactions prior to that.
Lin Nan currently just looked like a girl, but a normal guy wouldn’t doll himself up like that unless they had some issues, right?
If one of his students really did end up committing s*icide, he wouldn’t exactly be walking away clean. He was still in graduate school himself, and any problems could mess with his graduation.
“Maturing, I guess?” Though Chen Yao knew the truth, he still helped by covering, “He’s always been like this; it’s just back then he had more acne and rough skin. This semester, he started using skincare products, and voilà, here we are.”
Skincare can do that too?
The counselor wasn’t dense; he’d seen Lin Nan’s student ID photo from when he enrolled. Although that photo didn’t even faintly resemble the current Lin Nan now, if one were to envision him with some editing, there’s no way Lin Nan could transform into what he looked like now.
Could it be he faced some trauma and began to self-release?
“Not happening. You’re coming with me back to the office, and I’m getting a psychological form for you to fill out.” The counselor’s worry only deepened. “You need to look after him. If you notice anything, let me know, and try not to let him be alone…”
Chen Yao thought the counselor was overreacting a tad.
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The next chapter is a paywall chapter, so I hope everyone will support it!
