**[The risk of depression follows you like a shadow. Although it is a happy day, your self-destructive tendencies are sprouting, and your psychological issues cannot be ignored.]**
**[Please soothe your mood in a timely manner. Listen to a favorite song, play a favorite game, or go shopping and on a date with someone you like to vent your emotions? Smoking, drinking, and promiscuity cannot solve the problem. Please do not repeat past mistakes; you wouldn’t want the man you like to be scared away by you, would you?]**
**[Relieve your emotions in an appropriate way. Mission Rewards: 100 Cash]**
Inside a nearby Chain Hotel.
Bai Yao curled up on the snow-white bed.
The emotionless AI voice of the System felt like a mockery of his current situation.
‘It’s clearly your fault!’
‘Why are you crawling out now to pretend to be a good person!’
He had just finished a bout of crying and still felt incredibly wronged.
Now, he was so angry that his breathing was heavy.
He wanted to hit someone, but the System had no physical form, so he could only throw a frustrated punch at his pillow.
Bai Yao also knew the System meant well… but could you at least distinguish between the 18-year-old and the 31-year-old Bai Yao first?!
Clearly, if it had just given him a reminder before the car accident, that terrible future could have been avoided.
“Psychopath!”
“Who are you cursing at?”
Qiu Ye walked out after using the bathroom.
He saw that Bai Yao hadn’t even finished wiping away his tears, yet he was puffed up with anger like a pufferfish.
“Not talking about you.”
Bai Yao leaned against the headboard, his arms wrapped around his shins.
He lowered his head and rested his chin on his knees, letting out a faint sigh.
He curled into a ball, making his already small stature appear even more petite.
His eyes were vacant as he stared blankly at the bed.
His mind was a mess, and he had no idea what to do in the future.
‘Should I just act like nothing happened?’
‘As long as I don’t mention it to anyone, no one will know my secret.’
But he already had the appearance of a girl, and even the organs of a girl inside his body.
Seeing how that doctor was so adamant that it was a data entry error and completely treated him like a girl, he probably didn’t even have his male internal organs anymore.
Oh, the external ones were still there, and it was lucky that he didn’t have to take off his pants for the physical examination.
But wasn’t that even scarier…
The hotel room was very quiet.
Qiu Ye sat in a rattan chair not far away, his legs crossed as he played with his phone.
He was using AI or various search platforms and online doctors to check if there were any illnesses with symptoms similar to Bai Yao’s.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even know what Bai Yao’s symptoms were.
He didn’t bother Bai Yao either, letting him have some peace and quiet.
He didn’t want to see Bai Yao’s teary, pathetic appearance again.
He was cute, sure, but he wasn’t crying because Qiu Ye was teasing him.
The sound of rustling came from the bed.
Qiu Ye looked up and saw Bai Yao slowly lying down under the covers.
His movements were sluggish, as if the simple act of bending down and pulling up the blanket was an immense burden.
Even though he knew he shouldn’t disturb him, Qiu Ye still stood up and walked over to sit at the head of the bed, wanting to be closer to Bai Yao.
He looked at Bai Yao’s shoulder peeking out from under the blanket—slender, fragile, and pitiable.
“If you want to sleep, you can have a comfortable rest. No one will bother you.”
“Mhm.”
Bai Yao’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, heavy with a nasal tone.
“Should I go buy some water or a drink? What do you want to drink?”
“…”
Hearing no response, Qiu Ye stood up to leave, but a cold, soft hand suddenly grabbed his index finger.
He looked down.
Bai Yao was facing away from him awkwardly, leaving only a soft jawline visible.
‘This guy wants comfort but is too embarrassed to say anything. He likes to keep everything bottled up inside.’
Qiu Ye sat back down, letting Bai Yao hold onto his index finger.
“Would it really be okay if I were a girl?”
Bai Yao let go of his hand and wiggled backward, resting his back against Qiu Ye’s thigh.
His voice was weak.
“If I were a girl, I would be very popular, right?”
Qiu Ye jumped in surprise.
No!
Then his sin would be too great!
“I was just joking! You actually took it seriously?” he quickly advised.
“If you’re a bit short, just wear height-increasing insoles. If you look too feminine, just cut your hair short and work out to get some muscle. Don’t believe the nonsense I said before; it was all a joke.”
He was terrified that Bai Yao would actually do something drastic and go to the Kingdom of Thailand.
“What kind of illness is it exactly? Don’t do anything rash, okay?”
Bai Yao finally rolled over to face Qiu Ye.
He tried his best to maintain a cold, expressionless face, but he couldn’t quite hold it together.
His lips were pressed tightly into a wavy line, his nose twitched, and his breathing was heavy.
Qiu Ye sighed with heartache.
“Fine, don’t tell me if you don’t want to.”
“I really am a girl…”
“How are you still in the mood for jokes?”
He grumbled as he watched Bai Yao hide his face back into the covers.
Suddenly, his eyelid twitched.
‘In this kind of mood, it doesn’t look like a joke no matter how you look at it, right? Besides, Bai Yao is usually quite serious and rarely jokes around. It’s because he’s so serious that I always want to tease him…’
“Really?”
For some reason, Qiu Ye accepted this fact quite easily.
“Mhm.”
“Let me see your pants?”
“…”
Qiu Ye scratched the back of his head in frustration.
He reached out his arm and lightly patted Bai Yao’s back through the blanket.
“That shouldn’t be right? Something like this should have been discovered long ago. With medical science being so advanced now, how could it wait until now?”
It was indeed too illogical.
But as soon as he said it, he automatically ignored the faulty logic.
Instead, he felt that with how beautiful Bai Yao was, being a girl was actually normal.
Besides, he had long treated Bai Yao like a girl anyway.
“Then what do you plan to do in the future?”
“I don’t know…”
Qiu Ye didn’t know either, but he didn’t dare to appear panicked or lost.
Instead, he wanted to remain calm and steady to be a psychological pillar for Bai Yao.
“Then don’t think about it. Just take it one step at a time. It’s not like you had a plan before anyway; I just wrote random nonsense for my Career Planning Class.”
“Besides, there’s no pressure in college. Just live one day at a time happily, right?”
It seemed to make some sense…
Bai Yao was originally terrified and lost regarding his future.
Now that he had become a girl and gained the System, he could actually know some things about the future so he wouldn’t fall into any traps.
‘At least this time, I won’t end up as a Chinyu Bus striving for the 1,000 Kills Achievement. I won’t end up in the hospital from playing too hard, right?!’
He gave a soft response.
His spirit finally relaxed slightly, and the exhaustion from crying for so long rushed over him all at once.
Qiu Ye continued to gently pat Bai Yao’s back as if coaxing a child.
“Go to sleep if you’re tired. I’ll stay here…”
However, in the next second, Bai Yao suddenly poked his head out from the blanket and stared straight at him.
“What’s wrong?”
Those teary, red eyes made Qiu Ye feel a bit guilty.
“Why are you being so good to me…”
“Uh; weren’t you also pretty good to me when I was in the hospital?”
Qiu Ye asked, somewhat unsure.
“Is it not okay for me to return the favor?”
Bai Yao’s gaze shifted downward, looking for any sign of ulterior motives from Qiu Ye.
“It’s okay.”
Only then did he feel completely at ease.
He buried his head back into the pillow, found a comfortable position close to Qiu Ye, and closed his eyes.
‘Even though I thought before it didn’t matter what Qiu Ye wanted to do to me… I still can’t accept it!’
Besides, how could Qiu Ye possibly be interested in him?
Leaning against the headboard, Qiu Ye felt completely baffled.