When Yuhua escorted Anpelin back to the dormitory building, he was worried she might get lost.
But even though Anpelin was a bit dazed in her chuunibyou state, she still had basic life skills.
Yuhua had barely reached the dorm entrance when his phone vibrated, and a message from Anpelin popped up on the screen:
“Have arrived at the Dormitory Palace, do not fret.”
Only then did Yuhua feel at ease to leave the girls’ dorm and return to what was nominally the Men’s Dormitory but was in fact mixed, pushing open the door of Dorm 404.
Lin Ling was focused on drawing a portrait of Shui Hua on his tablet, Liu Shixing was assembling her newly bought Gamer Chair, while Wang Zeqi was grimacing as he changed the dressing on the wound on his shoulder.
Everyone was busy with their own thing.
“Yuhua, come look at my new equipment.”
Liu Shixing excitedly stomped on the air pressure lever, and the chair slowly rose.
She sat down and could finally look straight at the computer screen, shaking her dangling short legs with satisfaction, “Now I’ll never have to stand up to play games again.”
“You really spared no expense, huh?”
“No choice, there’s still a whole year until graduation. I can’t possibly spend a whole year standing, can I?”
“Well, that’s true…”
Liu Shixing adjusted her sitting posture and cleared her throat, “Since everyone’s here, I’d like to get your opinions.”
“What’s with the formality?”
“It’s about changing my name.”
Liu Shixing cupped her face in her hands, her pink hair sliding off her shoulders.
“Today when I went to change my Identity Card, the staff said that as an aberrant with a gender change, I could change my name too. I’m thinking about how to pick a good one.”
“That’s reasonable… Xiao Liu, your name, Liu Shixing, really doesn’t match your appearance anymore.”
Wang Zeqi looked at her pink-haired loli look, and thought the fit between her current appearance and her old name was as bizarre as adding cola to tofu pudding.
Yuhua chose to poke fun at Lin Ling as usual, “Yeah, unlike Brother Lin. His name sounds like ‘zero’, so he doesn’t even need to change it.”
Lin Ling ignored Yuhua’s teasing and instead asked seriously, “What do your parents say?”
“They can’t wait for me to change it…”
Liu Shixing pouted.
“I thought they’d be sentimental about the name, but they said since my appearance has become so much easier on the eyes, I might as well change my name too, so they don’t get annoyed looking at me.”
“Your parents aren’t exactly the most affectionate…”
Yuhua couldn’t keep a straight face.
“So hurry up and help me, what should I call myself?”
“Liu Xinyi, Liu Zixuan, Liu Shihan, Liu Siqi…”
Wang Zeqi rattled off a bunch of common girls’ names.
“Those are way too common.”
Yuhua thought for a while, then suggested, “If you ask me, you should keep some connection with your current name and then tweak it a bit… Like, Liu Shuxing?”
“Whose Meng Haoran is that?”
“I’m just providing a train of thought.”
Lin Ling suddenly said, “How about Liu Shuxing? ‘Shuo’ as in the new moon.”
“Not bad, let’s put that on the list.”
Liu Shixing finally heard something decent and jotted it down in a small notebook.
After a heated discussion, they came up with a few names worth noting, and in the end, Liu Shixing settled on the very first suggestion—”Liu Shuxing”.
“Alright, I’ll go sort it out tomorrow!”
She closed the notebook with satisfaction, spun the Gamer Chair around, and her hands quickly found their way to the keyboard.
“Seeing how helpful you two have been, I’ll graciously carry you for a few games.”
“Xiao Liu, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
Yuhua said disdainfully.
In the past, out of their three-person gaming team, Yuhua, who hardly had time to play, was naturally the worst.
But ever since Liu Shixing became a loli, her skills had dropped so much that even Yuhua could mock her.
“That’s only because I haven’t used my mic yet! You guys don’t get how deadly a loli voice is in games. Wanna try?”
Liu Shixing raised her small face defiantly.
Half-convinced, the two pulled her into the team, and soon they matched into a game.
Although Liu Shixing spoke with confidence, being a social phobic, she’d never actually used her mic in-game before.
She psyched herself up for half the match, and finally, after holding back for a long time, she nervously turned on her mic:
“Hello, h-hello, can you hear me?”
“F, playing this bad and using a voice changer, why don’t you just get yourself some fing skills?”
Just one try at being outgoing left Liu Shixing with a lifetime trauma.
“Pfft…”
Yuhua and Wang Zeqi couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“Don’t laugh! I just haven’t gotten used to the feel of this body yet! Just you wait, one day you’ll all look up to me!”
Liu Shixing yelled in frustration.
“‘Do not underestimate the poor youth’, huh? Fast-forward to ‘do not underestimate the poor middle-aged’, ‘do not underestimate the poor elderly’, and ‘let the dead rest’.”
Yuhua continued his relentless teasing.
“I’m so mad… I’m off to shower!”
As soon as the game ended, Liu Shixing rage-quit, jumped off the Gamer Chair, grabbed some clothes from the wardrobe, and went into the bathroom.
“So… should we play another round, just the two of us?”
“Um… Since Xiao Liu’s in the shower, let me ask you something.”
Wang Zeqi glanced toward the bathroom, then turned to Yuhua seriously.
“What’s up? Why wait for Xiao Liu to leave?”
“You remember last time I got bitten by Xiao Liu?”
Wang Zeqi pointed to the bandage on his shoulder.
“I went to the hospital, got some iodine and antibiotics, but it’s been almost a week and the wound still isn’t healing. I wanted to ask if I need to get Ability Bureau medical help?”
“You can ask Lin Ling about this—she works at the Ability Bureau, so she should know.”
Lin Ling had heard the conversation and replied earnestly, “Most ability-related injuries are treated the same as regular ones; just because the wound was caused by an ability doesn’t mean it needs special treatment… You’d better bring Xiao Liu to the Ability Bureau and have them check her Meme, see which aspect caused the injury, and follow the treatment advice accordingly.”
“See, that’s what I call professional.”
Yuhua gave Lin Ling a thumbs-up.
“Is it that serious? I thought a couple healing spells would do the trick…”
“The wound’s been there so long and hasn’t healed. Maybe when Xiao Liu bit you, she gave you your first embrace too.”
Yuhua suddenly gave a wicked grin and lowered his voice.
“You know, like Chekhov’s Gun—if a gun appears in the first act, by the last act, it has to go off.”
“Can you not freak me out?”
Wang Zeqi instinctively touched the bandage on his neck.
“My advice is, watch more JOJO or something, change your Meme about vampires. Otherwise, if you end up genderbending like Liu Shixing, I’ll be the only guy left in my dorm.”
Yuhua quipped.