A Shocking Revelation and an Unexpected Turn

After finally resolving the incessant harassment from the neighboring dorms – a nuisance that had sprung up because the guys couldn’t catch a glimpse of any girls – the four of us at last settled into our room.

To underscore the gravity of the moment, Linghu Ruoxu had even brought out his personal ‘lazy table,’ positioning it directly in the center of the dorm.

I, Guo Hao, Linghu Ruoxu himself, and Yang Laoer, who still pressed a hand to his forehead, sat in a circle around the table.

With this setup, if a deck of cards were placed on Linghu Ruoxu’s table, it would look no different from our usual game of ‘Fight the Landlord.’

****

“Uh, ahem, um, little… little girl, are you truly our Fourth Brother, Liu Fang?” As the dorm leader and eldest brother, Guo Hao finally managed to speak after glancing between the two of us.

“Absolutely true, no mistaking it for anyone else,” I replied, a bitter smile on my face, sitting in my former chair with a mix of nostalgia and complex emotions.

“Then, how did you become like this? You… what exactly happened to you?” Guo Hao seemed to finally accept the reality, responding to my smile—one more bitter than a bitter gourd, more aggrieved than Qu Yuan—with an equally strained smile that was uglier than a cry.

I sighed, having no choice but to recount my experiences from the past few days, simplifying the details for the three of them.

Of course, I omitted the parts where Senior Sister Xiao Ru checked if I was truly a girl, and my own private examination in the inn room. I genuinely worried that Yang Laoer and his ilk might become overly excited and insist on checking if I was, indeed, a girl.

After hearing my narration, the three exchanged glances, somewhat dumbfounded and incredulous. Finally, Guo Hao spoke as their representative.

“So, you’re saying, Fourth Brother, that you’ve truly become a girl, and you’ve re-enrolled in Tianwu University? This time, you’re in the Sun Moon Divine Cult specialization at the Western District’s Foreign Language Academy. On top of that, you were given an internal energy technique that’s supposedly useless, which also nullified all your previous martial arts, and you’ve even been… you’ve been renamed…”

“Dongfang Bubai,” Linghu Ruoxu, usually timid, surprisingly showed a flash of wit.

Noting that Guo Hao’s summary had grasped the key points, I could only nod with another bitter smile.

“Second Brother, do you think what she’s saying is true? Could it be that Fourth Brother found some girl to trick the three of us?” Guo Hao asked, turning to the slack-jawed Yang Laoer with a look of suspicion.

Yang Laoer, who had been staring at me, nearly drooling, suddenly snapped out of it when Guo Hao interrupted him. Wiping his mouth, he said blankly, “I feel like what she’s saying isn’t fake. While it wouldn’t be hard for Fourth Brother, given his intellect, to weave such a story to fool us, sending such a beautiful… flower-like young lady… specifically to the dorm doesn’t really fit Fourth Brother’s style.

“Moreover, according to this, he’d have to entangle himself, ending up without… [beep… beep]… all just to play a prank on us. To make such a huge sacrifice for a mere trick, I think that’s highly unlikely!”

“Third Brother, what do you think?” Guo Hao nodded at this, then turned to Linghu Ruoxu.

As Guo Hao turned, Linghu Ruoxu was muttering as if possessed, repeating, “I actually wanted to pursue Fourth Brother, I actually wanted to pursue Fourth Brother, I actually…” This left Guo Hao and Yang Laoer utterly bewildered, while only I understood the specific context.

“Alright, it seems we have no choice but to believe that what you, little… Fourth Brother, are saying is true,” Guo Hao finally concluded with some difficulty, having reluctantly considered the opinions of the other two.

****

The atmosphere among the four of us relaxed somewhat after this clarification. After they pressed me with a few more questions, they finally seemed to fully believe the rather convoluted and absurd fact that I was, indeed, me.

****

“So, you’re saying, Fourth Brother, that your martial arts are completely gone, and you can only start from scratch, practicing that… Sunflower Manual?” Guo Hao, after taking my pulse and injecting a stream of internal energy to briefly investigate, spoke with a somewhat grave expression.

“Yes, that’s right. Although my Master—the previous Dongfang Bubai—infused me with decades of internal energy, I can’t use it yet due to an imbalance of yin and yang. So, right now, I’m basically a cripple,” I said, spreading my hands helplessly, my smile still strained.

“Is that so? Well, Fourth Brother, don’t be too sad. As the saying goes, a loss may turn out to be a gain. Your gender transformation, Liu Fang, might not necessarily be a bad thing, right?” Linghu Ruoxu was clearly not skilled at comforting others; his words sounded somewhat gloating to me. In response, I could only roll my eyes.

As I turned my head, I suddenly felt something was amiss. Yang Laoer, usually so talkative, was completely silent. When I looked at him, he was staring blankly, seemingly deep in thought.

“Second Brother, what’s wrong? What are you thinking about?” I asked out of concern.

Yang Chun, who had been quiet until now, seemed to finally accept the reality. Suddenly, just like Guo Hao, he reached out and grabbed my hand.

“Fourth Brother,” he asked abruptly, with a serious expression, “do you still remember your Second Brother Yang by Daming Lake back then?”

That intense, direct gaze gave me a slight chill, but I couldn’t fathom what kind of trouble this guy was brewing now.

“Second Brother, just say what you want to say directly. Don’t beat around the bush with me!” I said, somewhat disdainfully, shaking his hand off.

“It was before, when my confession to that someone failed, and the four of us went to the barbecue stall outside the South Gate to drink. You said something then, Fourth Brother, do you still remember?” Yang Laoer said earnestly, with a look of eager anticipation, his eyes unblinking as he looked at me.

I paused for a moment before remembering. That time, to comfort and ‘celebrate’ his twelfth consecutive confession failure since entering university, we had gone out for barbecue and beer. In the midst of our tipsy revelry, after receiving his twelfth ‘friend zone’ card, Second Brother Yang had cried a snotty mess. To comfort him, I, also a bit drunk, had declared, “Second Brother, don’t cry anymore. If one day, I turn into a girl, I’ll definitely let you, Second Brother Yang, have your fun first, so you won’t always be so heartbroken and dejected from not finding a wife…”